Free Blindsided: A Sports Romance by Ava Kendrick

making sense. Me? A hooker? I’m pretty sure there are nuns out there who see more action than I do. “It means nothing. I work here. What am I supposed to do if a guest calls and asks me to come to their room? Refuse on the basis that it might be damaging to my virtue? This isn’t the 1800s.”
    “Rose,” Marcus says as if he’s at the end of his tether; as if I’m the one trying his patience instead of the other way around. “There’s no sense in discussing this anymore. We’re going around in circles. Now, you can walk out of here of your own accord, or I’ll be forced to call security. And I don’t want to do that, but you’re not leaving me with any other choice.”
    I balk. This is really happening. Nobody’s about to jump out from behind the filing cabinet and yell ‘surprise!’
    “Okay. I’ll go get my things from the staff room.”
    Marcus holds a hand up. “We’ll have them sent to you.”
    “I can just go get my stuff now,” I say, trying to keep my expression neutral.
    “It’s procedure,” he shrugs.
    I want to shake him. I remember hearing about that policy before. They do that so the person they’ve just fired can’t go and get revenge by planting microgreen seeds in the carpet or shoving raw fish behind the lockers.
    “I barely have time to wash my hair, let alone double up as a hooker and a corporate saboteur.” I stand and face them down. There’s so much I want to say but I tell myself to rise above it.
    I turn and walk to the door.
    If it was just me, I’d have spun around and called out Marcus’s ill-fitting toupee. I’d have pointed out Luca’s crooked kickback tactics.
    But it’s not just me; it hasn’t been for a long time. So I bite my tongue.

Chapter 9
Jake
    I blink at him. Is it my ears? Is there something wrong with my hearing? Because that’s the only explanation for this. I stick a finger in each ear and rub. Doesn’t feel any different.
    “Excuse me?” I say before turning to Coach Fox and Charlie. “Did you guys hear that? Are you fucking kidding me?”
    “No,” Jackson says, looking non-plussed by the interruption. “No, I’m not kidding. Would you like me to take you through it again?”
    I wave my hands in the air and squeeze my eyes shut. My hangover’s just got a whole lot worse. “No. Fuck. I understood what you said just fine. It’s the… the… are you on crack? Is that it?”
    “The only one in this office who’s under the influence of drugs is you, Jake. I can smell the alcohol from here. If I struck a match in here I have no doubt you’d go up in flames.”
    “Everybody was drinking last night, Charlie,” I hiss between my teeth.
    This is unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable.
    “Coach, are you hearing this bullshit?”
    He shrugs. “Jackson took us through the plan earlier, yes. Under the circumstances, I agree it’s the best approach. I believe Charlie does too.”
    Charlie nods. “Yes.”
    I stare at them. After Denny and the team, these are the guys I spend most of my time with. I looked up to them—they were the greats when I was a kid practicing in the back yard.
    “This is bullshit. You think my life is some sort of game? That I’m a puppet you own and control?”
    “There’s a morality clause in your contract, Jake,” Charlie says in a business-like way, as if we’re talking about the price of mugs at the merchandise stands. Not my fucking life.
    “But…”
    “This isn’t a debate, Jake. You don’t have a choice. Do it and you go some way to repairing your reputation with this team. Don’t? Well, we’ll have no choice but to drop you.”
    This cannot be happening. It can’t.
    This guy Jackson’s genius solution? This plan they’re all so enthusiastic about? I just can’t even begin to…
    “If you think I’m going to marry some fake titted bimbo and play happy families…”
    Coach paces to the window and looks out onto the training fields. “Jake, we’ve given you a choice. We’ve been sitting in