“We shouldn’t,” Taylor said, as much as it pained her to admit it.
He huffed out a laugh. “You want some irony? I spent the entire drive here mentally rehearsing how to tell you this exact thing, how I couldn’t allow what happened on Mount Bonnell to let me lose focus of my goal.” He shook his head. “My trip back home put a lot of things into perspective for me, Taylor. I havesomuch riding on this. Not just me, but people I care about. I can’t allow anything to distract me.”
She folded her arms, grasping her elbows in her hands. “So? What does this mean?”
“That I’m back to taking cold showers that don’t work worth a damn,” Jamar said.
“They totally don’t,” Taylor agreed. She paused for a moment, then continued. “You mentioned possibly keeping me on as your trainer even after our agreed upon two months. Were you serious?”
“I would be a fool not to,” he said. “I had high expectations when I hired you, but did I think I would be able to crush an agility drill this early into our training? Hell no. That’s all you. The fitness regimen you created is as effective as anything the trainers I worked with both in college and the pros ever put together. If I get back into the League, I’ll need to maintain this level of conditioning, which means I’ll need you long-term.”
Taylor tried not to completely lose her shit, but her chances of spontaneously combusting from excitement were pretty high.
Calm down!
She needed to adopt Jamar’s more realistic approach to this whole thing. It wasn’t a guarantee that he would make it back into the League, so she shouldn’t get ahead of herself here.
Yet, Taylor felt the anxiety over having to take that college entrance exam melting away in real time. If he hired her as his full-time, long-term fitness coach, she would no longer need to put herself through the agony of getting her degree, not if she negotiated a rate similar to what he was paying her. Hell, she would even continue with the free meal prep. He could never fully understand what this promise of job security meant for her.
At the same time, Taylor had to acknowledge the ache of what might have been. Having an end date to their professional relationship had left a door open to them possibly exploring something real. If Jamar decided to keep her on the payroll, it would essentially close that door.
You can’t have it both ways, Taylor Renee.
Life was a hodgepodge of tough choices pitted against even tougher choices, and no one ever said you were guaranteed to like either.
“When I agreed to work with you, I never thought of these eight weeks as a job audition, but I guess that’s what they are,” Taylor said.
“I never considered it that way either. But, then again, I had no idea you would not only meet my expectations, but surpass them.”
“Thanks.” Her lips twisted in an apologetic grin as the reality of what they’d silently, yet mutually decided settled between them. They both knew what had to be done, just as they both wished things could be different. “So, are you ready to try your hand at kickboxing?”
Jamar nodded, obviously taking his cue from her. “Are you going to take it easy on me? I’ve never done kickboxing before.”
“I told you once before, you didn’t hire me to go easy on you.”
She walked over to the wall where boxing gloves in various sizes hung from silver hooks. She grabbed a pair from a hook and slapped them against his chest.
“Glove up. It’s time to get back to work.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Jamar could only conclude that it was the need to burn off the absurd amount of built-up sexual frustration that had him kicking the ever-loving shit out of this punching bag. He backed away, then studied Taylor as she demonstrated an inside crescent kick, lifting her knee and swinging her leg in a fluid arch. Witnessing the power in her shapely legs—in her entire body—was the biggest turn-on.
How was he going to survive working with her indefinitely without losing his mind? He’d convinced himself that sticking to their fake relationship was the only way he could focus on his primary goal, but he now realized that it didn’t matter if the relationship was fake. His attraction to her was 100 percent real; there was no way of overcoming that particular distraction.
“Okay, now you try it,” Taylor said.
Jamar snapped to attention. Drawing his body into position, he followed her instructions, striking the bag with the side of his foot.
“Double jab,” she barked.
He struck out with a one-two punch, reveling in the satisfying thud of the glove connecting with the bag. He knew several former teammates who swore by kickboxing as a form of training, but Jamar had never been drawn to the sport. He hadn’t known what he’d been missing out on. The precision that went into hitting the bag at just the right angle appealed to the perfectionist in him.
“I don’t care what you claim, you won’t convince me that this is your first time kickboxing,” Taylor said.
“I promise you, it is,” Jamar said. He’d taken flack for his drive to be perfect over the years, but if it meant wowing his hot fitness instructor with his quick-learning kickboxing skills, he’d take all the flack in the world. “I’ve only seen it done, but never tried it.” He tilted his head to the side. “You know, with all the trash-talking you were doing earlier, I expected this to be a lot harder. This is nothing.”
She plopped her gloved hands on her slim hips. “Oh really?”
