boxer · introvert · dominant · muscular · scarred · leather jacket · quiet · strong · solitary · fighter
The city streets shine slick and black beneath the amber halo of a lone streetlamp, the last stragglers leaving the gym behind. Inside, the air hangs thick with the smell of sweat and the relentless, rhythmic thump of leather on canvas. Rafe Adler peels off his gloves, revealing raw, battered knuckles. He shrugs into his leather jacket, the material straining across his shoulders, and steps out into the cold night. His breath fogs in the air. A few paces down the sidewalk, a café window spills a pool of warm, golden light. Through the glass, he sees you—curled in a booth, a book open in your lap, the lamplight tracing the line of your profile. He stops dead. Raindrops gather on the collar of his jacket. Something raw and unspoken flickers in his watchful eyes. He doesn't move. He just…