A bomb detonates inside my head, and a plume of smoke fills around my brain, rendering me lost and confused, andblinded for a terrifying moment. My heart takes a moment to slow down.
Cadence had her district laptop stolen three months ago?
I lick my lips, and try to steady my voice so it doesn’t give way to my shocked, confused state. “So they don’t have access to the district intranet at all? The portal? They can’t access it from their home PCs?”
Leah looks up at me, clearly annoyed to take herself away from the screen. “No, West. The intranet is for their district device only. We decided not to allow the service to be remotely logged into from home devices for the privacy of the teachers. We don’t want any connection to their home devices and what might be on them.”
I swallow around the knot of horror and shock that has appeared in my throat in the last five seconds. Hoarsely, despite knowing the answer, still, I ask, “So Ron and Cadence have not had access to Team Chat or the Warriorville County intranet or portal or whatever the fuck?”
Leah blinks at me a few times, irritation coloring her cheeks red. “No, West. No laptop, no intranet. No district portal. Period.”
Thank fuck Leah is engrossed in something, because she doesn’t look my way again, allowing me to slip out of her office, then into mine. Locking the door, I catch my reflection in the small mirror on the wall.
I look like a damn ghost.
If Cadence hasn’t had access to her device inthreemonths…
Right around the time she and I started chatting onVeiled.
She and I?
There is no she and I, becauseDaddysGirlisn’t Cadence Caine.
She can’t be.
Not if Cadence didn’t have her device.
The images I sent roll through my mind and I nearly get sick, knowing I sentmy cum and my cockto a stranger.
Who the fuck is playing with my head like this?
ButDaddysGirl. I like her so much. Like, if this were 15 years ago, I’d be burning her a CD and taking her out to get a Frappucino before we seeAmerican Pie. She gives me stomach flutters and makes me think of my future using words like “together” and “family.”
Hell, I’m falling in love with her.
But apparently it’s all been a lie.
A question slides into my mind, curling around my brain, swallowing up all other thoughts and feelings, leaving me to circle it repeatedly as confusion and disbelief twist painfully around my heart.
Who the fuck is DaddysGirl?
No one fucks with my head and plays with my heart.
After Pris, I promised myself I’d have control of my next relationship, that I wouldn’t let another partner make me feel lesser than, make a joke out of me, make me feel like shit. No goddamn way. Not again.
Falling for her or not, I am going to find out whoDaddysGirlreally is.
And then I’m going to make her fucking pay.
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
I leave early.I don’t bullshit an excuse. I simply tell Leah that I’m leaving, email Dean that there won’t be any training for his players or the lower-class men, then go.
I can’t say I’ve ever enjoyed being fucked with, but after my marriage shattered into a million Pris-made pieces, this really stings. And with that sting, some shitty memories are rolling right back.
I don’t like being lied to.