You cannot bite your clients, Taylor Renee.

Maybe repeating those words in her mother’s voice would help curb the unholy thoughts ravaging her brain.

“Doubt it,” she murmured under her breath.

All it took was one simple kiss in the rain to fully embrace the idea of hooking up with her client. Not that there had been anything simple about that kiss, but did it warrant the constant ache it had set off in her pants? No!

Well, maybe.

After a week of pretending as if everything was normal, acting as if that kiss hadn’t changed everything, Taylor was ready to climb the walls. Okay, fine. She was ready to climb him. But she wouldn’t do either. She would be a professional and handle this like an adult. She and Jamar needed to air this out if she had any chance of surviving the remaining month with her sanity intact.

He finished taping up his ankles and jogged over to where she stood next to the free weights.

“Are you ready to get back to it?” he asked. “We’re doing kickboxing next, right?”

“Um, yeah,” Taylor said. She moved the ten-pound dumbbell back to its correct position, then started for the freestanding punching bag. After a couple of steps, Taylor stopped and turned. “Wait.”

“Whoa.” He caught her by the shoulders to prevent himself from running into her. “Watch yourself.”

Taylor began to peel his fingers from her bicep before he quickly released her. She cleared her throat. “We need to talk about it. I’m ready to talk about it.”

“About?”

“The kiss,” she clarified. “We need to discuss it and stop pretending it didn’t happen.”

His brow arched a fraction as he took a step back, giving her space. “I agree,” he said. “But for the record, I never said that we should pretend it didn’t happen.”

“I know,” she said. She gestured to him. “Well…talk.”

“Me? What do you want me to say? That I’m sorry we kissed?” He shook his head. “I’m not. That I don’t want it to happen again? I can’t say that either, unless you’re okay with me lying to you.”

A ball of angst rolled around like tumbleweed in the pit of her stomach.

Did you think this would be easy?

“I guess what my dad says is true,” she said with a nervous laugh. “Don’t ask a question if you’re not ready for the answer.”

“What did you expect me to say, Taylor?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I did want you to lie. It would make things easier.”

“No, it wouldn’t.” He looked over both shoulders before leaning forward and saying in a muted voice, “People already think we’re a couple. If we both want this, why shouldn’t we go ahead and follow through?”