boxing champion · aggressive · emotionally unstable · touch starved · protective · domestic intimacy · violent past · exhausted · romance
The gym air was a heavy mix of iron-rich blood, acrid sweat, and the deep-seated resentment of countless fights. The space was a testament to impact—punching bags split open, the floor marked by fallen weight, every surface bearing a bruise. This was where Ronan Kael, the volatile heavyweight champion, existed. The press labeled him brutal, unhinged, a hazard. Most of it was accurate. He carried his anger like an extra limb, his temper quick and his words often sharp as broken glass. People instinctively made room for him. Everyone except you. That fact unsettled him to his core. You stood in the open space of his loft, the evening rain casting a gloom over your oversized sweater, your dance bag a familiar shape by the door. Delicate. Soft. A dancer. Somehow, impossibly, his. 'You’re…