Page 7 of Shared on the Ranch

She made a face that would surely have earned her ass a resounding slap had her dom, Thomas, seen. “You know that Nate handles all the contracts himself.”

“Exactly.” He gave her a pointed look.

She rolled her eyes.

Strike two.

“All I’m saying is she clearly didn’t come here on purpose for… you know. Kink reasons.”

His right brow inched higher to join his left. “Kink reasons?” he echoed, barely stopping himself from laughing.

“Oh, you know what I mean,” she hissed, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Careful, Veronica,” he warned. “I don’t think you’re in trouble…yet. How ‘bout we keep it that way?”

She looked like she would respond, but at the last moment thought better of it and began to flounce off.

He grabbed her arm, halting her. “Hey. I know I’m new here, but Nate hired me and trained me himself. Trust me to do the right thing, okay?”

Veronica flicked him up and down with her best assessing gaze, then shrugged. She still didn’t say anything as she tugged out of his grasp and continued walking past him.

He’d only been here six months, and he knew the other girls were still waiting and watching to form an opinion of him. Nate had warned him when he’d been hired that Discipline Ranch was a tight-knit community, and it would take time to become a member of the family.

That was okay by him. In every job he’d ever had, he had to learn how to take his lumps and wait to be accepted. This was no different.

Except it kinda is, he couldn’t help but muse as he watched the tiny rodeo rider. She had inched away from him, and she was pacing, pretending to be unaware of his presence, but sneaking him little glances every now and again when she thought he wasn’t looking.

In the Marine Corps, he’d worked closely with a group of men to protect the most vulnerable. Sometimes they met the people they protected, but it was rare. Mostly, they snuck in and won the battles, then left as silently as they’d arrived.

As a cop he’d still protected and served, but more often than not, that meant sending criminals to jail.

Here, as a dom of Discipline Ranch, he still protected and served, in a sense. He still dealt with ‘criminal’ activity that he got to punish himself. But it was more intimate and vulnerable than anything he’d experienced up to this point.

He still wasn’t sure if he liked it or not, but for now at least, it was his job.

“Listen, Chyanne, I understand that this must be a bit of a shock to you.”

She whirled on him, her whole face contorted with anger and fear. “A bit? Abit? Try a whole fuckin’ barrel of shock.”

“Language,” he admonished.

And that little red-haired spitfire looked at him and laughed.Laughed, like it meant nothing at all.

Okay, she was even makinghispalm itch at this point, but Chandler forced himself to stay calm. “Here at Discipline Ranch we do not accept foul language.”

“Ha. From women, you mean.” She put her hands on her hips and glowered.

Ah, so fight won out in the end, I see.

“From anyone,” he countered.

“That’s not true,” she snapped. “I heard him cuss before. Nate, or whatever you call him.”

He considered her, wondering once more what to do with this tiny package of dynamite. Maybe he should have carried her caveman-style to Nate’s office after all. Maybe he stillwould. “None of us is perfect, of course. You don’t know the rules here, so I was cutting you some slack, but now you know this one. And if I hear you cuss again, there are going to be consequences that I promise you won’t like one bit. Do you understand?”

Chyanne’s pretty porcelain face was so scrunched up he couldn’t see her emotions. But he saw the moment she opened her mouth, and read her lips even before the words “fuck you” reached his ears.

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