Diana Palmer - Bound by Honor - Mercenary's Woman

“YOU HAVE GOT…TO BE KIDDING!” Sally choked as she dragged herself up from the mat for the twentieth time. “You mean I’m going to spend two hours falling down? I thought you were going to teach me self-defense!”

“I am,” Eb replied easily. He, too, was wearing sweats now, and he’d been teaching her side breakfalls, first left and then right. “First you learn how to fall properly, so you don’t hurt yourself landing. Then we move on to stances, hand positions and kicks. One step at a time.”

She swept her arm past her hip and threw herself down on her side, falling with a loud thud but landing neatly. Beside her, Stevie was going at it with a vengeance and laughing gleefully.

“Am I doing it right?” she puffed, already perspiring. She was very much out of condition, despite the work she did around the house.

He nodded. “Very nice. Be careful about falling too close to the edge of the mat, though. The floor’s hard.”

She moved further onto the mat and did it again.

“If you think these are fun,” he mused, “wait until we do forward breakfalls.”

She gaped at him. “You mean I’m going to have to fall deliberately on my face? I’ll break my nose!”

“No, you won’t,” he said, moving her aside. “Watch.”

He executed the movement to perfection, catching his weight neatly on his hands and forearms. He jumped up again. “See? Simple.”

“For you,” she agreed, her eyes on the muscular body that was as fit as that of a man half his age. “Do you train all the time?”

“I have to,” he said. “If I let myself get out of shape, I won’t be of any use to my students. Great job, Stevie,” he called to the boy, who beamed at him.

“Of course he’s doing a great job,” she muttered. “He’s so close to the ground already that he doesn’t have far to fall!”

“Poor old lady,” he chided gently.

She glared in his direction as she swept her arm forward and threw herself down again. “I’m not old. I’m just out of condition.”

He looked at her, sprawled there on the mat, and his lips pursed as he sketched every inch of her. “Funny, I’d have said you were in prime condition. And not just for karate.”

She cleared her throat and got to her feet again. “When did you start learning this stuff?”

“When I was in grammar school,” he said. “My father taught me.”

“No wonder it looks so easy when you do it.”

“I train hard. It’s saved my life a few times.”

She studied his scarred face with curiosity. She could see the years in it, and the hardships. She knew very little about military operations, except for what she’d seen in movies and on television. And as Jess had told her, it wasn’t like that in real life. She tried to imagine an armed adversary coming at her and she stiffened.

“Something wrong?” he asked gently.

“I was trying to imagine being attacked,” she said. “It makes me nervous.”

“It won’t, when you gain a little confidence. Stand up straight,” he said. “Never walk with your head down in a slumped posture. Always look as if you know where you’re going, even if you don’t. And always, always, run if you can. Never stand and fight unless you’re trapped and your life is in danger.”

“Run? You’re kidding, of course?”

“No,” he said. “I’ll give you an example. A man of any size and weight on drugs is more than a match for any three other men. What I’m going to teach you might work on an untrained adversary who’s sober. But a man who’s been drinking, or especially a man who’s using drugs can kill you outright, regardless of what I can teach you. Don’t you ever forget that. Overconfidence kills.”

“I’ll bet you don’t teach your men to run,” she said accusingly.

His eyes were quiet and full of bad memories. “Sally, a recruit in one of my groups emptied the magazine of his rifle into an enemy soldier on drugs at point-blank range. The enemy kept right on coming. He killed the recruit before he finally fell dead himself.”

Her lower jaw fell.

“That was my reaction, too,” he informed her. “Absolute disbelief. But it’s true. If anyone high on drugs comes at you, don’t try to reason with him…you can’t. And don’t try to fight him. Run like hell. If a full automatic clip won’t bring a man down, you certainly can’t. Neither can even a combat-hardened man, alone. In that sort of situation, it’s just basic common sense to get out of the way as quickly as possible if there’s any chance of escape, and pride be damned.”

“I’ll remember,” she said, all her confidence vanishing. She could see in Eb’s eyes that he’d watched that recruit die, and had to live with the memory forever in his mind. Probably it was one of many nightmarish episodes he’d like to forget.

“Sometimes retreat really is the better part of valor,” he said, smiling.

“You’re educational.”

He smiled slowly. “Am I, now?” he asked, and the way he looked at her didn’t have much to do with teaching her self-defense. “I can think of a few areas where you need…improvement.”

She glanced at Stevie, who was still falling on the mat. “You shouldn’t try to shoot ducks in a barrel,” she told him. “It’s unsporting.”

“Shooting is not what I have in mind.”

She cleared her throat. “I suppose I should try falling some more.” She brightened. “Say, if I learn to do this well, I could try falling on an adversary!”

“Ineffective unless you want to gain three hundred pounds,” he returned. He grinned. “Although, you could certainly experiment on me, if you want to. It might immobilize me. We won’t know until we try it. Want me to lie down and let you practice?” he added with twinkling eyes.

She laughed, but nervously. “I don’t think I’m ready to try that right away.”

“Suit yourself. No hurry. We’ve got plenty of time.”

She remembered Jess and the drug lord and her eyes grew worried. “Is it really dangerous for us at home…?”

He held up a cautioning hand. “Stevie, how about a soft drink?”

“That would be great!”

“There are some cans of soda in the fridge in the kitchen. How about bringing one for me and your aunt as well?”

“Sure thing!”

Stevie took off like a bullet.

“Yes, it’s dangerous,” Eb said quietly. “You aren’t to go alone, anywhere, at night. I’ll always have a man watching the house, but if you have to go to a meeting or some such thing, let me know and I’ll go with you.”

“Won’t that cramp your social life?” she asked without quite meeting his eyes.

“I don’t have a social life,” he said with a faint smile. “Not of the sort you’re talking about.”

“Oh.”

His face tautened. “Neither do you, if I can believe Jess.”

She shifted on the mat. “I haven’t really had much time for men.”

“You don’t have to spare my feelings,” he told her quietly. “I know I’ve caused you some sleepless nights. But you’ve waited too long to deal with it. The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be to form a relationship with a man.”

“I have Jess and Stevie to think about.”

“That’s an excuse. And not a very good one.”

She felt uncomfortable with her memories. She wrapped her arms around her chest and looked at him with shattered dreams in her eyes.

He took a sharp breath. “It will never be like that again,” he said curtly. “I promise you it won’t.”

She averted her eyes to the mat. “Do you think Jess and Dallas have done each other in by now?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

He moved closer, watching her stiffen, watching her draw away from him mentally. His big, lean hands caught her shoulders and he made her look at him.