Chapter 8

Diana heard Charles saying something about John Wayne. She saw how the look on his face changed as he practically dropped a platter onto the picnic table.

Oh, God ... he knew it was true...

When they had met that day in the hospital after her attack, Wayne had given nothing of his emotions away ... He'd only looked concerned! But Charles must've figured out that he still loved her, too...

Lynda had also picked up on something. She asked Diana what was going on.

Diana swallowed hard. "He knows about the big man and me ... and I think he knows he still loves me! How in the hell did he figure that out?"

Lynda looked at Diana and asked in confusion, "What are you talking about? Who is this... 'big man' and who still loves you?" she asked even louder as Diana jumped up and headed over to where Charles was standing on the other side of the pool.

It was time to get things out in the open. Charles gazed at Diana as she approached him with a wary look on her face. She stopped just in front of him.

"Yes, I know that you told me the truth about the affair with John Wayne and I know that he still loves you. And the fact that you won't talk about that weekend just makes me realize that it was, as you said, the most incredible experience of your life! I have to learn how to deal with the images I keep seeing in my head of you and him together! It just makes me a little insane at times!!!"

The women had joined them. Lynda, Barbara and Dawn were staring at Diana in shock.

Diana glanced at her girlfriends and grinned jokingly. Then she frowned as she explained.

"OK ... you remember that weekend I disappeared in April of '54 ... the weekend after we all celebrated Lynda's divorce from the bastard, and I told you I had disappeared with 'just some man?' Well ... that man was John Wayne. I didn't want to tell anyone about it because I didn't want to have to answer a lot of questions and I still don't want to. It happened, we fell in love but we weren't meant to be together, so we parted! Now can we just let this drop, please?"

Lynda ranted, "Why didn't you tell ME? Why did you give me some bullshit story that you'd offered yourself to him but he turned you down and told you you deserved better, and that you spent the weekend with some random man to try and make you not feel humiliated? I'm your best friend! You couldn't have trusted me with this? I'm the one who'd always tried to talk you out of those damned one-time encounters with strange men and this was the one time I'd encouraged you to go after a man!"

Tom looked at Charles when Lynda made the comment about one-time encounters with strange men. Charles rolled his eyes and shook his head. I guess you already knew about that ... Damn, partner ... I would never have suspected that Diana was a woman with a past...

Lynda continued. "What did you think I'd do—go blabbing to whole world that my best friend fucked John Wayne?!!! I could've been there for you like I was when that bastard took your virginity and dumped you immediately afterward! I always tried to make you see that you were better than you thought you were and that you deserved more! I sometimes felt I cared more about you than you cared about yourself!"

Diana sighed. "Damn it, Lynda ... I know you've always cared about me, but you didn't have to blab practically my whole life's sad story in front of Tom, Jon and Rick!"

She looked at them a little sadly. "Sorry, guys ... I know you all think I'm this strong, confident woman, but when you get to know me a little better, you'll find out how screwed up I am!"

She turned back to Lynda. "And Lynda, I didn't run to you that time because I really didn't want ANYONE else to know about it—and not because I was afraid you'd blab. I just knew you would've wanted details and I didn't want to tell anyone the details ... I wanted it to stay just between him and me."

But Ward Bond knew a lot of the details ... Diana felt like a hypocrite. But it was the only excuse she could come up with to try to soothe Lynda's hurt feelings. She stared at her best friend, pleading with her eyes for Lynda to understand and let it go.

Lynda sighed heavily. "I don't know why you don't want to share the details. Hell, if I'd fucked somebody that famous, I'd be dying to tell my best friend all about it—unless it was the worst sex I'd ever had! Is that why you didn't want to tell me about it—because it was bad? If it was so bad, why would you have stayed the whole week..."

Lynda paused as realization hit. "It wasn't bad ... and he fell in love with you but you couldn't marry him? Why not?"

Charles jumped in, growling loudly at Diana. And as he ranted at her, she melted under his heated gaze and from the forcefulness of his passionate, angry voice.

"Because he felt too fucking possessive of her! His jealousy over the thought of her with another man made him want to do crazy things, like kill any other man who'd ever dare to touch her! It puts images in his head of her making love to another man and it drives him insane! He's a famous movie star! He couldn't handle a life in the public eye if he threw fits threatening to kill any man who dared to mess with his wife! But I can handle it ... I'll kill any man who's dared to touch her! I'll drag her to bed to erase the images in my head of her fucking HIM, and I'll beat the shit out of any man who messes with her!"

They were both panting heavily. They just stared at each other for a second. Then he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her against him as he crushed his lips to hers. He kissed her fiercely. She whimpered passionately, wrapping her arms around his torso. Charles deepened the kiss, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, parting her lips and thrusting his tongue into her mouth. They both groaned in desire. The tension between them was instantly dissolved by their possessive love and desperate desire for one another.

There were several moments of awkward silence. Their friends were all looking at them and at each other as they all thought the same thing.

What the fuck just happened?!!!

Charles finally ended the kiss and slowly released her. He brought his hand up to her face and caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers. They smiled softly at one another for a few seconds.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, looked around and said, "So, why are you all just standing around? The food's ready ... let's eat!"

Everyone just stared at them. Lynda finally said, "What just happened between you two? What the fuck was that all about?"

Charles and Diana looked at each other and smiled. Charles said, "Let's sit down and eat and we'll try to explain it to you."

They all sat down to feast on hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, cole slaw ... all the usual cookout-type foods. As they ate, Charles and Diana explained to them their histories and subsequent personalities. She needed for a man to be possessive of her, and he needed to know that his wife belonged only to him.

The topic of conversation came back around to Tom and Lynda and how fast they had fallen for each other. Everyone asked them if they had any deep-seeded psychoses that had driven them into each other's arms.

They said almost at the same time, "Not really ... I just had to have him ... her!" They looked at each other and laughed.

Barbara added, "Jon and I fell in love just as quickly. But we were at the police station so we couldn't just attack each other—although we very nearly did anyway!"

Everyone looked at them with their eyebrows raised. Diana asked, "What happened?"

Barbara looked at Jon and grinned sexily. "I lost my senses! He'd been staring at my breasts and he told me that he'd been imagining what they would feel like in his hands. So I put his hands on my breasts!"

Jon thought she was going to stop there. "Then he asked me if I wanted him as much as he wanted me, so I forced his hand down into my panties and..."

"Barbara!" Jon bellowed as he clamped his hand over her mouth. "You don't need to tell them what happened next ... I think they'll be able to figure it out now!" He looked around at everyone else as they chuckled.

Rick looked at him. "She had to force your hand into her panties! Doesn't sound like you put up much of a fight! I think you could've stopped her if you really wanted to! She made it sound like you were being forced against your will! And then I suppose she forced you to make her come, huh?!!!"

Everyone chuckled harder. Then Jon chuckled, too. "Well, no ... she didn't have to force me to do that. She looked so desperate and, being a trained police detective, I could tell she was in distress and needed a hand..." Everyone busted out laughing.

Then Dawn said, "I wanted to attack Rick the very next time I saw him! He came to see me at work and he started speaking in Spanish. His sexy voice almost drove me wild! Then he shyly asked me to have dinner with him that evening and he took me to his parents' home to meet his family. I overheard him telling his father, 'Ella sera' mi esposa, ' that I was going to be his wife! Rick assumed that I didn't understand Spanish!"

Rick chuckled when she continued. "I looked at him and said, '¿Cómo sabes eso, Enrique? Tú ni siquieras me preguntó todavía!' How do you know? You haven't even asked me yet! Then Rick's father laughed and told him that he wasn't going to be able to give away any secrets about me! He told me that Rick liked to bring non-Hispanic girls over to dinner sometimes and tell him and his brothers intimate secrets about the girls in Spanish. They'd all be laughing and the girls would be sitting there wondering what they were talking about!"

Rick smiled. "I should've known she knew Spanish when she said my name the night we met at the hospital. My father and mother liked her immediately, despite the fact that she's not Catholic. They've gotten used to the fact that I prefer non-Hispanic women. All the Hispanic girls I've met are still so rooted in the culture and I was raised and educated in a predominantly white neighborhood. In fact, I had to brush up on my Spanish when I became a police officer. They wanted me to help with patrolling the Hispanic neighborhoods sometimes so I could communicate with the people easier."

Everyone laughed when Dawn said, "You still need to brush up on your Spanish ... you speak it with too much of an American accent! I guess I'm going to have to tutor you to get back that sexy accent that really drives me wild!"

They all laughed harder when Rick replied, "Damn, honey! You can hardly keep your hands off me now! And you want me to do something that's going to drive you even wilder? Maybe I should call the priest and see if we can move the wedding date up because I don't know how much longer I can hold you off!" He yelled, "Ow!" when Dawn punched his right upper arm. Then he laughed again.

After everyone had finished eating, clearing the dishes and putting the leftovers away, they sat around the pool for a while sipping drinks and chatting. As the afternoon sun got warmer, they all ended up in the pool, relaxing in the cool water.

Diana asked if anyone knew how to play "chicken." When they all said no, she explained how to play; "The women sit on their man's shoulders in the pool while he holds her legs and the women wrestle each other to see who can knock the other one down first!"

A couple of the others said that they'd played it, years before, but they hadn't called it "chicken;" they'd called it something else. Dawn and Rick challenged Diana and Charles to a game. Barbara and Jon and Lynda and Tom moved to the sides of the pool. Charles and Rick dove down to put Diana and Dawn on their shoulders.

They established the rules of the game. No slapping, hitting or punching. Hands were used strictly to grasp each other to try and pull or push each other down. The guys' jobs were strictly to hold onto them and stay on their feet.

As soon as the others said "go," Dawn and Diana immediately grabbed for each other's shoulders and upper arms and started wrestling. Lynda and Tom were rooting for Diana and Charles and Barbara and Jon were rooting for Dawn and Rick.

They were pretty well matched. Rick was a little shorter than Charles but Dawn was a little taller than Diana so they were at the same height. However, Diana was finally able to wrestle Dawn over since she was a little more top heavy for Rick.

Next, Barbara and Jon challenged Lynda and Tom. It didn't take Lynda very long to wrestle Barbara off of Jon's shoulders as she and Tom had a few inches advantage in height.

Lynda and Tom challenged Charles and Diana. Charles looked at Tom and said, "Oh, come on! You've got to be kidding, right? We wouldn't stand a chance against you guys!"

Then Tom said, "OK, let's try to make it a little fairer. How about Diana and me against you and Lynda? That should make the height a little more even. What do you say?"

Charles looked at Diana and she looked at Lynda; they all shrugged and said OK.

So, Tom put Diana on his shoulders and Charles put Lynda on his. Lynda was still a few inches higher than Diana, but Diana had the advantage of Lynda being more top heavy for Charles. To Tom, Diana felt like a feather compared to Lynda—he didn't have to struggle at all to hold onto her. Charles noticed that Lynda weighed a bit more than Diana, but he didn't feel any difference in his ability to balance her on his shoulders because of her extra height.

Diana looked at Charles as he wrapped his arms around Lynda's legs. His hands seemed to creep a little higher up her thighs than was necessary. I see that sexy smirk on your face! Are you picturing her long, shapely legs wrapped around you? Or would you have preferred her to wrap her lips on your cock... Diana pictured Lynda kneeling in front of Charles...

Lynda saw how easily Diana was perched on Tom's shoulders. When she bent forward slightly, her large breasts were resting right on the top of his head. Tom twisted his head to the side to look up at Diana. He grinned wolfishly when he saw her generous breasts right at his face. You look like you're enjoying the sight of her breasts just a little too much...

The two women eyed each other warily for a moment. Then Lynda and Diana went at each other fiercely. They struggled for several minutes as they stared angrily in each other's eyes.

Lynda glanced down and saw Tom looking upward toward Diana's breasts and grinning wolfishly again. She tried to strengthen her hold on Diana as she gritted through her teeth, "Get off of my man!"

Diana broke Lynda's hold on her and pushed at her shoulders as hard as she could. She yelled, "Not until you get off of my husband!"

Lynda almost lost her balance and Charles almost went down, but they steadied themselves.

Lynda and Diana glared at each other for a few seconds. Tom and Charles backed away from each other. OK ... it was time to break up the catfight...

Barbara and Dawn were snickering quietly at the sides of the pool. They figured they were fighting about how it was that Lynda knew Charles had a slightly bigger cock than Tom...

Lynda and Diana looked at Barbara and Dawn. They started chuckling. Then they laughed. Yeah ... we must've looked pretty silly...

Tom said, "How about we just call this one a draw! Nobody won. Nobody lost. And whatever you two were fighting about has been settled ... right?" Tom moved toward Charles. "Now, shake hands and we'll call it even!"

Diana saw Charles make a gesture with his eyebrows as he looked at Tom when she and Lynda went to shake hands. She was going to say something about it when she suddenly felt herself being dumped off of Tom's shoulders. He grasped her ankles and shoved them outward and up. It happened so fast that she didn't even have a chance to shriek—she only had time to take a breath of air before she ended up under water. But she heard Lynda shriek and caught a glimpse of Charles doing the same thing to her.

Lynda and Diana came up sputtering. Everyone else was laughing. Lynda and Diana looked at each other for a couple seconds. Diana made a motion with her hands behind Tom's back. I'm going to yank his shorts down...

Lynda grinned and nodded quickly. They moved up behind Tom and Charles. They sank down into the water, grabbed the sides of their swimming trunks and yanked downward as hard as they could. Tom and Charles both yelled "hey!" and pulled their shorts back up as fast as they could.

Diana moved away from Tom as fast as she could, expecting some kind of retribution.

Tom turned around and went after her. He reached out his right hand to grab her shoulder, but he missed and grabbed her hair instead. Diana fell backward, screaming. He immediately let go of her hair and went to wrap his arm around her to steady her, but her screams became more desperate...

Diana was immediately thrown back to that night. She panicked. Then she went wild when an arm wrapped around the front of her chest and neck—just like that night. She flailed her arms and legs. She heard a man's voice saying, "Diana, calm down. What's wrong?"

She screamed desperately, "Let me go! Please ... let me go! Don't hurt me... !"

When she was suddenly released, she quickly made her way to the side of the pool. She leaned on the edge, shaking and crying. She heard someone coming up behind her. She turned around; it was Charles. She threw herself against him, sobbing.

Charles held her tightly and stroked her back until she calmed down. He knew why she'd panicked. Rick had told him how the attack had happened.

What happened... ? Tom looked helplessly at Lynda and raised his eyebrows. Lynda shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. Rick and Jon motioned for Tom and Lynda to come over to the other side of the pool. Rick quietly explained the full circumstances of her attack.

No wonder she panicked... Tom grimaced. He felt the need to apologize. He saw her calming down, so he moved slowly toward her and said quietly, "Diana, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to grab your hair, I was going for your shoulder and I missed. When you fell, I was just trying to get my arm around you to steady you. I really didn't mean to hurt you or scare you."

Diana smiled sadly at him. "It's OK, Tom. It's not your fault ... I know you didn't mean to do it. You couldn't possibly have known that it would scare me. I feel so silly. The circumstances here were nothing like ... I'm in a pool surrounded by friends and people who love me ... people I trust. I'm just glad I didn't bite you!" she said with a laugh.