Page 15 of His Ruthless Match

Islammed my fists into the heavy bag, each hit reverberating through my body like a drumbeat. Left jab, right cross, left jab, hook. Sweat dripped down my spine, and my ponytail swung behind me as I threw punch after punch. The burn in my muscles was cathartic, and it drowned out the noise in my head.

The converted workout room was my sanctuary. Polished floors, mirrored walls, and not a single distraction in sight. Just me, the bag, and my thoughts.

A sharppopof air behind me shattered that peace.

I froze mid-swing, my heart hammering as I spun around. I stared, wide-eyed, at the soaking wet figure in my doorway.

“What the fuck?” I snapped, yanking the wraps off my hands.

Jareth stood there, dripping water onto my immaculate floor, a towel slung precariously low on his hips. His dark hair was plastered to his forehead, and the hard lines of his muscles glistened under the light. He looked more annoyed than worried, which only pissed me off more.

“Your heart rate spiked,” Jareth said flatly, crossing his arms like he wasn’t dripping all over my floor. Water pooled around his bare feet, and the towel slung dangerously low on his hipslooked ready to betray him at any second. “I thought you were in danger.”

I stopped myself from gaping at the absurdity of the situation. Barely. “Clearly, I’m fine,” I shot back, snatching my towel from the bench. The sight of him standing there, smug and soaked, wasn’t helping. “I was working out. You ever heard of cardio?”

His golden-brown eyes narrowed slightly as a flicker of exasperation crossed over his face. “Yeah, well, this stupid bracelet doesn’t seem to know the difference between danger and a good cardio session,” he muttered, holding up his wrist to display the matching device. “I’ll have to talk to Vivian about recalibrating it. This is ridiculous.”

I glared down at the offending bracelet on my wrist. Its smooth, polished metal seemed innocent enough, but it may as well have been a leash. And right now, I wanted nothing more than to snap it in half.

“How did you even get here so fast?” I demanded, my frustration simmering just under the surface.

Jareth sighed heavily, dragging a hand through his dark, wet hair. The motion sent another stream of water trickling down his chest, tracing along sharp muscle lines I tried very hard not to notice. “Vivian’s latest gadget,” he said, his voice tinged with something that sounded suspiciously like boredom. “She combined human tech with veilstepping. I push a button, and bam—here I am.”

“Great,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “So now you can invade my personal space faster than ever. Wonderful. Truly cutting-edge.”

His lips twitched upward in the faintest hint of a smirk. “Convenient, right?”

“For you? Maybe. For me? Absolutely not.” I crossed my arms, my irritation boiling over. “This is invasive. You can’t justpop in whenever my heart rate goes up. What if I’d been—” I cut myself off, suddenly realizing I didn’t want to finish that sentence in front of him.

His smirk grew. “What? In the shower? Don’t worry, princess. I would’ve knocked.”

I clenched my jaw so hard that my temples ached. “Knocking would imply you have boundaries,” I snapped. “And that’s giving you and my brother way too much credit.”

“Relax,” he said with maddening calmness, leaning casually against the doorframe like he owned the place. “I’m just doing my job.”

“You’re not doing your job,” I shot back, stepping closer to him despite every instinct screaming at me not to. “You’re pushing every single one of my buttons on purpose. Don’t even try to deny it.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said smoothly. “It’s just so easy.”

I wanted to throw something at his head. Preferably something heavy. “This is harassment,” I hissed.

“This is protection,” he countered. “You can complain all you want, but the fact is, if your heart rate spikes like that, I’m gonna show up. Get used to it.”

I jabbed a finger into his chest. “You don’t get to decide how much of my life you invade.”

He caught my wrist, his grip firm but not painful. “I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here, but your brother put me on this job, and I don’t take his orders lightly. So yeah, I’m going to be invasive if I need to be. Deal with it.”

For a moment, we stood there, locked in a silent battle of wills. His eyes searched mine, and I hated the way they seemed to see right through me, cutting past my defenses like they weren’t even there.

I yanked my wrist free, my face hot with anger—or maybe something else I didn’t want to think about. “You’re impossible.”

“And you’re predictable,” he said, that damn smirk returning like it had never left. “See you around, princess.”

He held up his hands as if to pacify me. The movement made the towel slip lower on his hips. Dangerously low. My traitorous gaze flicked downward, taking in the sharp, defined muscles of his abdomen and the infuriating V-shape leading lower.

My face heated when I realized I was staring. Jareth’s grin only widened.

“You’re enjoying this,” I accused.