“Do you see those bands over there?” he asked Taylor, pointing to the wide receivers working out on the far side of the field house. Three guys had harnesses wrapped around their feet, the ends of the thick leather bands secured into the wall. “Those are for helping to build speed. I have some, but haven’t had them installed in the gym at home.”

“Oh, I’ll bet running against that resistance builds up core muscles too.” She bumped him with her elbow. “You need to get those babies installed. I can come up with all kinds of ways to torture you with something like that.” She looked over at him, a note of apology in her pained expression. “I totally didn’t intend for that to sound like some kind of kinky S and M come-on.”

Shockingly, his mind hadn’t gone there. But now that she’d brought it up, he would have to work extra hard to expunge those thoughts from his head. He added them to the dozens of other inappropriate thoughts about his new fitness instructor that had invaded his brain over these past couple of days.

Jamar shut his eyes and tilted his head from side to side, working out the tension in his neck. This was frustrating as hell. Yet, he only had to consider her words from yesterday to understand why Taylor could never be anything other than his trainer. If word got out that they were hooking up, no one would take his endorsement of her business seriously. The last thing he wanted was to stifle her success.

Coach Green walked over to them, his hand outstretched. “Thanks for coming, Diesel.”

“You know you can call on me whenever you need me,” Jamar told him. “This is Taylor. I hope you don’t mind me bringing her along. She’s a huge fan of the game, especially the Longhorns.”

“Hook ’em, Horns,” Coach said, extending his index and pinky fingers to resemble the horns of a steer.

Taylor’s eyes widened. “Umm…go team?” she replied, holding her fingers in a gesture that looked more like the Hawaiian shaka sign than the UT hand signal.

Coach Green’s forehead creased in a puzzled frown.

“Why don’t you bring us over to the running backs?” Jamar quickly suggested.

The moment Coach turned, Taylor caught Jamar by the hem of his shirt and pinched the shit out of his bicep.

“I’m a big Longhorns fan?” she hissed.

“Ouch,” he whispered, rubbing his arm. “It was a joke.”

“What did I tell you about your jokes?”

He chanced another pinch on the arm by leaning over and whispering, “You have to admit it was a little funny.”

She rolled her eyes, but he could tell she was trying hard to contain her grin. She was cute even when she was pissed off.