Chapter Nine
Blood trickled from her nose, but she couldn’t feel anything except fury. How could she have ever considered courting this man? Clearly, her judgment was not to be trusted.
Worse, even with all her brothers’ training, Alannah knew she couldn’t win this fight. For all her talk of protecting Emer, she couldn’t do it when her sister needed her.
Emer.
The reminder of why she was prepared to take any number of blows brought her another wave of courage. Her sister was depending on her. Even if Conan came to aid her, she needed to keep going. One day soon, he wouldn’t be here to back her up.
Oran stepped toward her, winding back for another blow.
She shoved off the table, preparing to block it.
She never got the chance.
Instead, the satisfying sound of Conan’s fist connecting with Oran’s face interrupted their brawl. He didn’t give Oran a chance. The hits kept coming, one-two into his chest, another into his face, until he tumbled backwards, spitting out teeth.
Conan lifted Oran off the floor by his shirt, hauling him bodily to the door. “If you set foot in this building again, Alannah will kill you, and I’ll make sure she doesn’t owe the fine for it.”
Good Lord. A storm of emotions stirred within her, so many she couldn’t identify a single one as she watched the gorgeous giant defend her and respect her all in the same moment. He’d let her fight. He’d given her a chance to hold her own before stepping in.
He’d believed in her enough to wait.
“Alannah!” Emer shouted, hurrying to her from where she’d been washing dishes. “Are you alright?”
Alannah shook those silly, girlish thoughts from her mind. It was because she’d bedded him that she had a soft spot for him. Turning to Emer, she hurried to put her sister’s worries at ease.
“I’m perfectly fine,” she assured her. “Are you alright? I’m sorry I let him get inside.”
“For heaven’s sake, Alannah!” Emer tsked. “I’m not the one who took a fist to the face. Let me get you a cloth.” She hustled back toward the kitchen.
After slamming the door on Oran and barring it, Conan rounded on her. The rage in his eyes dissolved into concern the moment he set eyes on her.
“Maybe I should have killed him.” His nose flared in anger, his jaw clenching so tightly she could see the muscles working.
It sent a familiar warmth straight through her, the memory of a sensation she craved but could not give into. It would be foolish to get too attached to a man just passing through—even one so interesting as Conan.
“He’s not worth the effort,” she told him, the pain finally settling in her nose. “Did he break it?”
Conan’s fingers gingerly ran the length of her nose and moved over her cheeks. “Luckily for him, he did not.” His squared jaw ticked tellingly. “So when you said he came by occasionally, what you meant was he threatened you nearly every day?”
Alannah swallowed, testing her own sore jaw. “Something like that, aye.”
“You should run with us tomorrow,” he told her. “At sunrise we train, and you should, too.”
“Run?”
“You’ll get less winded for it.” His voice fell on her like a caress, soft and tender as he inspected her nose further. “I think it should heal fine.”
Swallowing the last shreds of her pride, Alannah sighed. “Thank you.”
“You didn’t need me.” The corner of his mouth raised into a half-smile. “I just couldn’t wait any longer. I meant what I told him,” his tone turned serious. Deadly.
Alannah could see now how he’d been a mercenary once, perhaps not that long ago.
“If he comes back, use your sword. I’ll make sure no trouble comes of it.”
“How?” She wasn’t certain she trusted him, but she did believe him. The idea of killing anyone, even Oran, didn’t sit well with her. But if it came down to protecting Emer from him, she just might.
“I know people,” was all the answer he offered. “I’ll see you at sunrise.”
He took his leave and Emer took his place, carefully washing the blood from Alannah’s face.
“Does it hurt?” she asked. “It looks like it hurts.”
Her face felt like that shattered pot from last night, in spite of Conan’s reassurances. But she wasn’t about to have Emer thinking she couldn’t protect her. “Not at all.”
Emer shook her head. “You’re such a sweet liar.”
“Emer, if he comes back, I need you to promise you’ll run. Hide. Especially if I’m not here.”
“Alannah,” Emer protested.
“Promise.” She wouldn’t stop until she got her sister’s word.
“I promise,” she acquiesced finally.
Alannah let out a breath. At least if she failed to protect Emer, her sister would still have a chance of escape.
Hopefully her brothers truly were on their way back as Glasny had said.
With Oran’s increased hostility she’d feel better having them here.
Oran was a bully but he wasn’t a fool. He’d wait until the bards left before trying anything again.
Once Emer finished her ministrations, Alannah retired to their shared room, exhausted. Laying there, staring at the ceiling, more memories of Conan flooded her sleepy thoughts. She’d been right about him twice over.
He’d been holding back when they sparred last night. She’d struggled to land a single blow and Conan could’ve killed Oran as an afterthought. That man was lethal.
And she’d been right that she could only spend one night with him.
Her body heated in desperation for another, but Alannah knew it was for the best to keep her distance—as much as possible while sharing the inn with him, anyway.
Alannah had been too distracted by Conan to pay attention to the door.
If she’d been keeping watch as she always did, Oran wouldn’t have entered at all.
Conan was a distraction she couldn’t afford.
Deciding to stay away from Conan was one thing, but physically doing so was another entirely. Alannah learned as much the following morn when she joined the men on their run. Aside from childhood games, Alannah had never run for the sake of running, and never for so long a time.
Brutal did not begin to cover it.
Gasping for breath and doing her best to hide it, Alannah pushed herself until her lungs burned and she was certain she would lose her breakfast. Somewhere northwest of Ath Luain, she had to lean against a tree to catch her breath.
“Head between your knees,” Conan’s voice advised.
She did as he instructed, doubling over and lowering her head. It helped. She took several long, slow breaths. Even though she managed to catch her breath, her heart still raced and her legs burned.
“I’ll walk you back,” he offered.
Alannah shook her head, straightening slowly. “I can keep going.”
“Maybe you can,” he allowed, “but you shouldn’t. Join us again tomorrow and you’ll make it further before you must stop.”
“I’m not going to ruin your run for the next month,” she told him. “I’ll keep coming, but you don’t need to walk me back.”
“That’s not optional.” His tone brooked no argument. “Not after last night.”
“Oran was after Emer, not me.”
He narrowed his grey-blue eyes at her as they walked back the way they’d come.
His gaze strayed from her face, roaming slowly, deliberately, over every inch of her.
The way he devoured her made her fight to breathe for entirely different reasons.
“Right, that’s why he was attacking you. Because he’s after Emer.”
“He keeps trying to catch her on her own,” Alannah explained, horrified at how much her lungs yet burned. No wonder she struggled to spar for any length of time. “She’s so delicate and gentle, she’d never be able to defend herself. He keeps attacking me because I keep getting in his way.”
“Why?”
“I told you, she can’t defend herself.”
He smiled. “No, I mean why is he going after her?”
“I think he realizes that without her there’d be no Hart’s Rest. I couldn’t do the things she does to run it, not without hiring help I can’t afford.”
“And he runs the other inn in Ath Luain?”
Alannah could as good as hear him trying to solve the problem, trying to work it out. “Aye. He opened it to try to run us out of business after I left him.”
Conan stopped dead. “After you what?”