Hey everyone, thank you so much for reaching out! I absolutely love hearing from the community, whether it's from comments on the story or via private feedback e-mails. Keep it coming!
Future chapters will have the POV switch over to Ellie. However, I will make sure to have bolded sub-headings. I've learned the hard way that Literotica's formatting system doesn't register asterisk line breaks. Ellie is going to become an integral part of the story...I promise!
As always, this is just a fantasy. In real life, make sure to follow all your local laws regarding consent.
I'd like to thank everyone who has taken a look at my story beforehand!
The lone on-duty cashier at the Big Box retailer had just finished ringing up Dave's flatbed cart. The cashier read the final payment due, and Dave damn near had a mild heart attack when he heard the price. His eye's widened as the high-three figure total laid emblazoned on the screen in front of me at the checkout lane. Dave needed to bring his breathing down as he reached for his wallet. Dave was able to afford it, but this was a significantly higher number than he was used to parting ways with in a retail setting.
Dave
he thought to himself
it's all right
.
It's mostly because of the one-time-only kitchen gear
.
Dave had made sure to buy all of the kitchen gadgets that Lauren had written down the night before. He briefly considered getting her less than what was on her list; he intended to show Lauren that he was not a wish-granter and he wanted to see how creative she could be given a set of limitations. While these were good lessons to drive home, and he certainly intended to find other avenues in their new life together to do so, the kitchen was not the realm to do that in. Instead, Dave opted to pick up all of her requested small kitchen appliances and tools, thus to take any potential excuses for failure off of the table.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason that the final payment due was so high; Dave also made sure to grab all of the various grocery requests as well. Dave was used to only shopping for one; himself. Dave's typical grocery hauls typically included a visit to the wholesale club to buy bulk packages of chicken breast, brown rice, beans, oatmeal and frozen vegetables; enough to cover him for the next several months. However, that wasn't going to work this time around, as Lauren had written specialty ingredients (or more appropriately, specialty-to-Dave ingredients) such as fresh fruits, spices, condiments, specific herbs and brown sugar. He had never tried Lauren's cooking before, and hence buying the smaller quantities made sense for now. He had no idea what she regularly used, either with her previous master or in her prior life as a free woman, thus Dave wanted to get a trendline of Lauren's culinary tendencies before buying in bulk.
Dave also saw to it to pick up an actual cutlery and dining room set. Now that Lauren was living with him, he could no longer get by with owning a handful of plates, bowls, and utensils. Dave had been a bachelor for a while, and his near-empty cabinets reflected that. He made sure to pick up a set of plates that included full sized dinner plates and smaller plates as well.
Lastly Dave stopped at the in-store pharmacy to pick up a monthly birth control regimen for Lauren. Since the federal government had permitted female enslavement in the name of higher birth rates, they naturally had to place heavier restrictions on access to birth control. At first, the price was artificially raised by law in an effort to dissuade women from using it. However, wealthier women could still access it, and this propped up various non-profits funded by starry-eyed and deep-pocketed donors to disperse these contraceptives.
Thus, the government fought back by banning their sale to women under the age of 30. The thinking went that if only women who were nearly past the age of needing birth control could buy it that was effectively the same as banning. However, Congress failed to think of the second-order effect of older women simply started buying it on behalf of younger women. Thus, the feds passed another law stating that women over the age of 45 could not purchase female contraceptives either. That law also included some strict penalties for those caught buying them for someone else; a similar tactic had already been upheld in the courts for tobacco and alcohol decades prior, so lawmakers felt safe in writing this in. Narrowing the potential customer base had helped to increase the birth rate, though it still didn't match 1950's numbers.
Finally, the government took more substantial action in the face of mounting demographic collapse. After female enslavement was passed, a new law was passed that only slave owners could buy female contraceptives, and slave owners were not subjected to either of the previously-passed restrictions. This was the safest way for legislators to make sure this law stood up to judicial scrutiny; after all, the legislators could not go any further before they would lose on the grounds of various centuries-old private property laws. Enslaved women were private property, and property owners had the final say, full stop; there was nothing legislators could really do about it.
Dave made sure to bring his bill of sale to prove his ownership of Lauren, as it was Sunday and the state's database was unlikely to have been updated since yesterday. While there was no prescription needed, it was still behind the counter to prevent theft. Dave presented his bill of sale and the pharmacist scanned it without much scrutiny; the Sunday morning shift typically was not the
A-Team
of Big Box employees. The pharmacist grabbed his keys, unlocked the thick glass cabinet and then handed Dave the birth control with a quick instructional overview.
"Ensure she ingests it within a week after her period. Repeat monthly, that's it" the paunchy pharmacist stated, in a monotonal voice that was far more likely to bore someone to death than it was to actually inform.
Dave paid the balance of what he owed Big Box and received a lengthy receipt from the underpaid cashier. After silently nodding
have a nice day
to the employee, he pushed his flatbed cart out of the store. He made certain to slow down as he crossed the threshold of the door and came down the paved incline on the sidewalk meant for carts. Dave didn't want anything to be damaged in transit, thus some extra care was warranted. He popped open the hatchback of his car; Dave had folded down his rear seat in order to have more storage room. He packed up his car by loading all of the kitchen gadgets in first and pushing them all the way to the back, while perishable groceries were packed towards the front. He finished packing everything soon enough and slammed the hatchback door shut.
Dave hopped into the driver's seat and fired up the engine. He was eager to get home. He was absolutely starving; he had carefully slithered out of bed at 7:00am so as to not wake Lauren. He left a note instructing her to have his morning oatmeal and protein shake on the table at 9:00, with no other explanation. After all, she had no need to know where he was going or why, nor did Dave feel any obligation to explain himself to his property. It was 8:48, though Dave lived in the same town as Big Box, and was determined to meet his self-imposed 9am deadline.
He pulled into his spot at the apartment complex at 8:56 pm. He got out of his car and opened the rear hatch. He grabbed all of the groceries, looping one of his forearm's through the handle to ensure that he can grab all of them in one trip. He used his free arm to throw a fleece blanket that he always kept in his hatch over the kitchen gadgets to conceal the contents of his car. While Dave lived in a relatively safe neighborhood, he didn't want to take needless chances either.
Dave entered his apartment and found Lauren at the stove; her naked flesh pouring the hot oatmeal into a bowl was a welcomed sight. "Welcome home" she muttered nervously "Breakfast is ready, master".
Dave gently set down the grocery haul and then kissed Lauren on the cheek "I can see that. Let's put all of these away first".
Dave had scalded himself a few times in the past on oatmeal, so he wanted it to cool off for a few minutes. "I'll tell you what, since you'll be taking over the kitchen, you can sort it however is easiest for you" Dave offered, mostly out of a detached pragmatism than any real concession being made to Lauren.
"I'll leave you to put these away. We'll eat as soon as you're done". Dave stated matter-of-factly.
"Yes, Master" Lauren responded dutifully as she got to work putting the grocery haul away.
Dave stepped into the other room as she started to sift through the bags and load the cabinets and fridge with Dave's grocery haul. Lauren mentally compared what was in the bags versus what she asked for via the list and was pleasantly surprised to see that Dave had actually fulfilled her entire wish list. Dave returned with a bar of SlaveFeed and set it on the table as Lauren gathered up all of the plastic bags and threw them in the trash.
Dave sat down at the kitchen table and Lauren began to take her seat across from Dave before he stopped her.
"Not so fast" Dave commanded.
Lauren looked back with a confused look on her face. She wondered if she forgot something.
