Free Traded by Lorhainne Eckhart

some guy’s hotel and letting him screw you? Look at you! Everyone in that hotel would know by taking one look at you what you’ve been doing, like some second-class call girl. You’re dressed the part, too.”
    He was right, but did he have to be so damn crude? “Yeah, well, it wasn’t planned—and could you just drive me home without the lecture? I’m not a child.”
    “Maybe not, Chris, but you’re acting like one,” he snapped. There was nothing remotely understanding in his voice.
    Seriously? She was about to tell him to stop and pull over. She’d find another way to get home. Whatever was eating him, she realized he was taking it out on her. He didn’t have a clue what was going on in her life, he’d been so wrapped up in his own. “What’s going on with you, Myles?”
    He glanced her way and then back at the road. Yeah, she didn’t miss the sting in his expression. He’d been holding on to something.
    “We’ve always talked to each other, but you haven’t been yourself for a while,” she said. Not since he’d fumbled during the big game. Then there’d been the slew of injuries, one after the other. She wondered if he was drinking more, too.
    “Should be asking you the same thing, Chris. What’s going on with you? You still haven’t answered me on who you were with. Do I know him?”
    “Why, so you can go back and pay him a visit?”
    The last thing she wanted was Myles knowing any more of her shame. It was enough that he’d had to talk to her about Troy, coming in and reading her the riot act after the warning call she’d gotten from the cops. Being accused of stalking him had been worse than anything she could ever have imagined. She wondered if all the guys on the team knew.
    “Damn straight. Any guy who has you walking out of his hotel room to find your own way home is a guy who needs to be taught a lesson,” he snapped. “Who was it, Chris? Some guy you picked up, someone I know?”
    “I’m not some slut, Myles. I didn’t pick someone up. It just kind of happened. We’re friends.” Friends who’d had dinner and wine and acted on their attraction after Jake said he wanted to sleep with her, that was all. Friends with benefits, wasn’t that what people called it? But then, she and Jake had never really figured it out. They’d been interrupted.
    “Chris,” he growled, and she knew he wouldn’t let up until she told him.
    “It was Jake Wilde.”
    “The guy who’s here to replace me?”
    “I’m sorry. I like him.”
    “Oh, Chris. Haven’t you learned anything after Troy? I told you to stay away from the players on the team. I don’t want to see you gutted like you were after Troy. Most of these guys aren’t looking for commitment with a nice girl like you. They want no strings and a quick fuck and so long, baby.”
    For a second, she wondered if he was talking about himself. He wasn’t seeing anyone, but she also knew he wasn’t a monk. He was into things she was pretty sure she didn’t want to know—kinky stuff. She’d heard the talk from some of the girls who’d been with her brother. It was a picture she didn’t want in her head.
    “You don’t get it, Chris. He’s not going to call. He’s done with you. So you need to be okay with that and leave it be. What happened with Troy…I don’t want to ever see you suffer like you did. He played you, he had fun. When a guy leaves—”
    “I know! You’ve told me a hundred times.” She cut him off before he could finish. “It was his way of saying get lost, so long, because I wasn’t important enough for him to give me a second thought.”
    “Yeah, that’s right, and the way you pushed it—”
    “I know, okay?” She gritted her teeth, spitting the words out. She didn’t want to hear any more lectures about a time in her life she wished she could forget about forever. “I thought there was more. I fell in love with him. I was an idiot. I thought if I kept calling, he’d realize that he cared for me. I