The Product Tester

Chapter 6

Ethan stared at his fiancé, puzzling about what he should do.

She wasn't likely to cause any real damage. That was the point of the drugs, after all, if they increased the danger of self-harming they'd be less than useless. Right now, she was going to be feeling pleasant, lazy, and unable to form sentences of longer than two words.

That said, he wasn't about to leave her alone. 'Unlikely' didn't mean 'Impossible'. She could try to make food and hurt herself, or do something unfortunate with one of the power tools still scattered on the couch and coffee table.

Not to mention... "No! Dang it, stop that!" Ethan said, slapping Mary's hand away from the crotch of her diaper once again.

Whether it was the drugs or something else, she was apparently interested in a little solo stimulation and completely unconcerned about the smelly state of her padding. He couldn't just leave her alone to do something like that, not when she'd come to her senses in a couple hours and be mortified by the memory.

"Mary," he said, sitting down next to her on the couch. "Can you understand me in there? Why don't you just tell me what I can do for you?"

She looked down between her legs, frowning, but Ethan wasn't about to put up with that and shook his head. Mary, coherent enough to understand his gesture, pouted but didn't argue. "Lunch?"

He almost protested. Wouldn't she rather wait until after her diaper change? It's only an hour or so from now, but since she doesn't seem to care... "Sure thing, sweetie. Why don't you wait here and I'll go make something?"

A playful, wicked smile danced across her mouth, but Mary nodded innocently. "Okay!"

The childish attempt to be clever was more than enough indication what she was planning on doing the moment Ethan walked away.

"Babe, no," he insisted. Taking both of her hands in his, he concocted a new plan. "Okay, you're going to come with me."

"Nooo," Mary whined, but she let Ethan pull her to her feet and walk her towards the kitchen.

The open floor plan apartment wasn't huge, but it had room for a sizeable kitchen and dining area. Mary cooked more than Ethan did, but he wasn't hopeless with a stove either. There was a kitchen island with two high bar stools, the perfect place for Mary to wait while he whipped something together.

Helping his fiancé up into the seat, her diaper squelching as she put her weight on the wooden stool, Ethan said, "Sit here? I'll make some food."

She nodded, and he sighed in relief.

Maybe this won't be too hard after-

"Gosh darnit, stop that!" He frowned, making a mental note to talk to Kat about the drugs they were using in Mary's collar. Sure, Mary wasn't going to be doing anything to escape the cover, but...

"Okay, we're going to need to work something out. Can I trust you for ten seconds?" he asked, watching Mary's face carefully. Deciding that her expression meant 'no', he resolved himself to just work quickly.

The stool had arm rests, and there was tape beneath the sink. Briefly, Ethan considered just taping her hands down so she couldn't do anything with them, but that was a terrible idea for more than a couple reasons.

Dismissing that, he came up with a better idea. Retrieving the duct tape from beneath the sink, he also took their cutting board, and with judicial application of the former, he secured the latter to Mary's bar stool. In a few moments, he had created an effective barrier between her arms and everything below the waist.