The first time that Mal had started with tae kwon do, she had fallen in love. Not with her instructor, not with a boy in her class, but with the martial art and the way that it made her feel. Not only did it challenge her, but it made her feel a strength that she often felt that she was lacking, it was the one place where people wouldn’t take it easy on her because she was rich and had an influential family. That was where she had crafted her patience and her sense of discipline, two things that had helped her greatly in her career and her life in general. Over the years, she’d worked her way up the ranks, and though she had competed in a few tournaments in the past, she hadn’t really been pushing herself beyond that, and truth be told she wasn’t sure she was ready for that kind of commitment. Between her responsibilities at the paper—which had increased thanks to Adam fucking off to fuck his way around Europe—and the stories that she had committed herself to doing, she just didn’t have the time to get there, or even to train as regularly as she had wanted to. It was one of her biggest disappointments, but she knew early on that she would have to make sacrifices for this job. That was what it meant to be an adult, or so she’d heard. But it didn’t mean that she had to like it.

Mal took a deep drink from her water bottle before letting it drop back to its place beside the ring, and reached up to tighten the ponytail holding back her deep red hair. This was not the first time that she had sparred with Declan, but this was one of the times that he had pushed her hardest. It was about time; the reason she had wanted to spar with him in the first place was because she thought that he would be able to challenge her in a way that nobody else had been able to… well, that and the fact that she had a major crush on him from the moment that she had seen him working out at the gym the first time. So maybe getting him to spar with her was a way to get him alone so that she could actually talk to him and get to know him a little better.

So she had kept after him, including insinuating that he was afraid of fighting a girl in order to goad him into agreeing. In the end, he finally had, and Mal would be lying if she said that there wasn’t a part of her that had been satisfied the first time she had managed to lay him out in the ring. None of the guys that she stepped into the ring with expected her to be as strong as she was, or as skilled as she was, and she was greatly amused by the look on their faces when they finally started sparring. That included Declan. “Alright Bruiser”, Mal laughed, straightening as she turned to look at the tall man that she had a kind of fascination with. At the rest of his question, however, she quirked a brow.

“Are you ready? Most guys need a breather before round two, it’s fine. I won’t judge.” She kept her blue eyes wide and innocent, she even blinked a few times to complete the picture. Of course Mal knew the innuendo that the words contained, she may be a virgin but she wasn’t stupid, but that was honestly part of the fun. She liked getting under Declan’s skin, and there was a part of her that wanted to see how far she could push him before he relented to what she hoped that she inspired in him.

Of course, there was also the possibility that she was making him feel uncomfortable, and while that wasn’t enough to stop her in that moment, it did give her a reason to pause.

Mal readjusted the cloth wrapped around her hands, already preparing herself for the attack that she had a feeling was coming. Declan was supposed to just randomly attack her, but there was a rhythm to what he was doing, though she wasn’t sure that he was aware of it. “I’m more worried about you needing a break from getting your ass handed to you on this mat.” Was she getting a little cocky? Yeah, but with the number of times that she had managed to knock him back, could you really blame her? She squared her shoulders, turning slightly to the side, and bent her knees, wondering which way he would come at her this time.

She wasn’t really expecting him to come at her from behind, and Mal would be lying if she said that she didn’t relish the feeling of his arms wrapped around her, even if it was limiting her range of motion. Quickly, her mind assessed the possible routes, the things that she could do in order to break the hold and knock him back. Still, her mind was slightly clouded with the thought of how each dip and curve in her body seemed to mesh perfectly with his. Raising her foot, she hooked it quickly behind his knee, and threw the weight of her body back, hoping to send him falling backwards onto the mat beneath them. It might not break his hold, but at the very least it might distract him.