She jumped in surprise when Uncle Luke placed a hand at the small of her back, nudging her forward. Instinctively, she obeyed his silent command and stepped into the middle of the room, too awestruck to fight him just then.

There was a woman waiting for them with a clipboard and a frown tugging at the lines of her severe face. Her dark hair, streaked with silver, was pulled up into an equally severe bun.

Before she could worry too much about who the woman was or what she was doing there, the door shut behind them, and Dorothy jumped again at the sound. Though it probably hadn’t been that loud, it sounded like a gunshot to her in the perfect silence of the room.

“Dorothy, this is Miss Pearl.” With his hand still on Dorothy’s back, Uncle Luke gestured to the woman with the clipboard. “She’s the ranch foreman. Say hello, Dorothy.”

“Hello,” Dorothy parroted obediently.

“It’s nice to meet you, Dorothy.” Her voice was surprisingly kind, though she still hadn’t cracked a smile, so Dorothy wasn’t sure how to read her. “As Master Lucas said, I’m the foreman here at the ranch. While I won’t be overseeing your day-to-day care, I will always be available if you have any questions or concerns.”

“Oh. But, um.” She glanced up at Uncle Luke before looking back at Miss Pearl. “What about Uncle Luke?”

Miss Pearl raised an eyebrow, her gaze sliding over to Uncle Luke then back to Dorothy. “You should do your bestnotto require a visit from Master Lucas.”

“What? Why?”

Sighing heavily, Miss Pearl lowered the clipboard, holding it in front of her stomach, her back military-straight and her eyesfull of piercing disapproval. “Because, if Master Lucas is called to deal with you, it means you require a level of attention and discipline my ranch hands and I are incapable of giving you. Only two of our animals have ever needed his intervention, and I can promise you they came to regret their behavior the second he took over their care.”

A chill crept up Dorothy’s spine. But despite the fear Miss Pearl’s words induced, a familiar ache was making itself known between Dorothy’s thighs.

She risked another glance up at Uncle Luke, who was watching her silently, but with such an intensity she nearly whimpered. What would it be like to have that kind of intense focus on her all the time? To be the only person a man like Lucas Callaway devoted all of his time and attention to?

It was a heady thought, but at the same time she wasn’t quite sure it was worth the risk. The spanking he’d given her back home had been bad enough, and if those things on the wall were for what she thought they were for, she wasn’t keen to find out how muchthosehurt.

No matter how tingly and achy the thought of being punished by him again made her feel.

“Do you have any questions before we begin, Dottie?”

Wrinkling her nose at the unexpected nickname, Dorothy shook her head. “No. But nobody calls me Dottie.”

For the first time, a hint of a smile graced Miss Pearl’s face. “A new name for your new life, then. And one fitting for such a pretty little cow as yourself. If you don’t have any questions, you may remove your clothing.”

Heat rushed to Dorothy’s face, brought on by the dual humiliation of being referred to as a cow and being told to strip naked in front of Uncle Luke and a complete stranger. “Right now?”

“Yes. Now, please.”

“But… isn’t there like, a changing room or something?”

“This is the changing room, little cow. And before you continue arguing with me, I should remind you I have plenty of tools at my disposal for incentivizing stubborn little animals like yourself.” She gestured toward the wall of leather and wood, driving her point home.

Yup, they were exactly what she’d thought they were. Implements of pain, designed to ensure obedience from girls like her.

It worked. Just the thought of being hit with one of those things had her reaching for the hem of her shirt and tugging it over her head. As she tossed it to the side, her gaze landed on Uncle Luke, who had moved off to the side and was watching her with an entirely different kind of intensity than he had when she’d been naughty.

Why did that look make her feel so hot and flushed all over? He wasn’t some guy she had a crush on, he was Uncle Luke. A man she’d known literally her entire life.

Then again, nobody else she’d been with had ever really made her feel this way, either. Whatever this was that was making her skin feel like it was too tight was uniquely an Uncle Luke phenomenon.

Something flashed in his eyes as she reached behind her to unhook her bra, and it struck her then that she wasn’t the only one experiencing an unexpected reaction to their situation. Holding his gaze, she popped the hooks free and held the bra to her breasts in a gesture of faux innocence.

She may not have been the kinkiest or most experienced member of her friend group, but she knew damn well how to use her body to bend a man to her will.

Pearl was not altogether thrilled to have him overseeing this part of the process, he could tell. But he didn’t particularly care if she wanted him there or not. He’d promised his friends he would personally look after their daughter while she was in his program, and he intended to keep his promise.

And, he could admit to himself, he didn’t want anyone else touching her. Not yet, anyway. Not until he’d figured out exactly what he wanted from sweet little Dottie.

Watching her slide the straps of her bra down her slender arms, slowly revealing the swell of her breasts, he contemplated telling Pearl to leave. He was painfully hard, and he had to shift more than once so his cock wasn’t pressing against the zipper of his jeans. And when her bra fell to the floor, her heavy breasts swinging free and just begging for his touch, he had to grit his teeth against the urge to step forward and play with those gorgeous tits.