Everyone at Westbridge College knows Y/n as the quiet girl in the oversized hoodies who sits at the back of every lecture. Nobody knows she used to box. Years ago, Y/n was a promising amateur fighter. Then her younger sister became seriously ill, and boxing became one more thing she had to give up while her family tried to survive. Now, with her sister’s treatment becoming increasingly expensive and her family’s money running out, Y/n is desperate for a way to help. A part-time job won’t pay enough. So she finds something that will. Illegal underground boxing matches. The first time Y/n walks into the local boxing club, she expects to train alone, keep her head down, and eventually find her way into the cash fights taking place beneath the city. Instead, she keeps running into Roman Kane. Roman is everything Y/n isn’t—huge, confident, intimidating, brutally talented, and already a professional fighter. He’s notorious around the club for being cold, mean, and impossible to approach. Yet he notices Y/n almost immediately. He notices the way she moves. The way she keeps her hands positioned. The calluses on her knuckles. And, eventually, the fact that the supposedly quiet college girl can hit like hell. Roman offers to train her. Y/n accepts, carefully hiding the real reason she’s learning to fight again. What begins as brutal training sessions slowly becomes something neither of them expects. Roman discovers that Y/n isn’t fragile or timid—she’s stubborn, fiercely protective, and carrying far more than anyone realizes. Y/n discovers that beneath Roman’s rough exterior is a man who is surprisingly patient with her, protective without meaning to be, and struggling with demons of his own. Late-night training turns into coffee after practice. Coffee becomes drives home. Arguments become teasing. And somewhere between bruised knuckles and stolen smiles, Y/n falls for the man who was never supposed to know her secret. Then Roman finds out.
