Kane (Savior Daddies #2)

1. Cassie

Chapter 1

Cassie

Cassie’s bright blue eyes twinkled with pure joy.

Another webcomic in the bag. Well, nearly . Cassie still had some finishing touches to sort out. Plus of course the usual second check for any spelling errors that managed to sneak under the radar somehow.

Final amendments aside though, the latest comic was almost done.

Cassie spun around in her seat and looked around at her apartment. It was a bright, open plan space that had big windows running across one wall. The view out onto the city was superb. Probably the highlight of the apartment and in no small part one of the reasons that the rent was pretty steep.

Still, it was worth it.

The sounds of the city hummed outside, but it was a comforting background noise for Cassie. A contrast to the total silence outside her childhood home, a ranch where the nearest neighbor was over twenty acres west.

Growing up, the only noise Cassie would hear from her bedroom was that of the harvester chugging up and down the cornfields.

Oh, and the sound of her mom arguing with whichever stepdad it was that month. There was much to love about the country, but her homelife had rarely felt settled. Often, it could even be quite toxic.

But that was then.

Country girl to city Little, Cassie had gone on quite a journey. City life suited her. Cassie enjoyed the light and airy nature of her funky apartment. It allowed her to furnish it with plenty of color.

And boy, did Cassie enjoy adding extra color!

From her home-made posters to various pieces of art she collected from her favorite Etsy stores and craft sites, Cassie had a keen eye for art.

Being a twenty-four-year-old full-time web comic creator meant that Cassie’s mind was almost always focused on art, color, design. It was her passion and had been since for as long as she could remember.

Even as a twenty-four-year-old, Cassie still felt the same unbridled joy at any kind of color or art that she had as a kid playing with fingerpaints at her childhood daycare nursey.

The passion for color knew no limits.

Even Cassie’s favorite stuffie was super-colorful. Bouncer was a neon green rabbit with the cutest floppy ears known to man. Cassie and Bouncer had been through a lot together over the years.

They really were best friends.

The perfect Little and stuffie combination.

Cassie’s peroxide blond hair even matched with Bouncer’s neon green fur. It was like they were meant to be together.

‘ Hmmm , I hope this issue sells well,’ Cassie said, adjusting her thin, round-rim glasses. ‘You’d buy a copy, right?’

Bouncer just stared back at Cassie, but Cassie knew that if Bouncer could, he would definitely buy her comics.

‘Well, I don’t know about you, but I think I’ve earned a break,’ Cassie said, chuckling to herself as she stood up from her chair and walked over toward the kitchen area. ‘Hey, it’s not like the boss is going to tell me to get back to work!’

Of course, Cassie was the boss.

This was one of the benefits of working for herself. There was no one to tell her how to do her job.

Cassie was in control.

Breaks any time she wanted.

Total freedom.

As good as this was, not having a boss did have downsides too. Cassie tended to get lost in her work. When she was passionate about a new comic, it was all she could think about.

It was at times like this where having a boss would have helped her. Someone to tell her to take a step back. Breathe . Do something else. Clock off for the evening.

Cassie needed the kind of firm but fair instruction that in an ideal situation a Daddy would provide.

But for Cassie, the topic of a Daddy was a bit of a sensitive subject.

Part of Cassie craved a Daddy.

Someone to look after her, be there when she needed a snuggle. A dominant figure to also lay down the law when it was required too. And if that meant a firm spanking, then so be it.

But Cassie had been in that situation before.

And it did not work out well.

Cassie’s former Daddy simply couldn’t deal with the amount of time Cassie put into her comics. So much so it was like he was jealous of Cassie’s passion for her career. But instead of talking things through with Cassie in an honest and transparent way, the former Daddy had taken a different approach. He was negative about the work.

Constantly telling Cassie it wasn’t good enough to use professionally.

Always putting Cassie’s skills down.

In the end, Cassie realized that her old Daddy couldn’t possibly have loved her if all he did was criticize and berate her for caring about her work. That wasn’t the kind of environment that Cassie wanted to live in. Far from it. So in the end, Cassie decided to end the relationship. The Daddy hadn’t taken it well. There was no civilized goodbye. Just huge argument after huge argument.

It had taken a toll on Cassie.

In Cassie’s mind now, she had decided that maybe being in a relationship was simply out of her reach. Cassie knew that there was no way she was going to abandon her life as a comic creator. So why put herself through the stress and sadness of getting into another DDlg relationship.

It was a tough decision, but one Cassie felt was for the best.

Speaking of DDlg relationships, Cassie looked at her cell phone and saw a message from her friend Katie. Like Cassie, Katie was a Little. But the difference being that Katie was in a relationship with Cage. They were great together. Cage was Katie’s Forever Daddy and it filled Cassie with so much love to see how happy the pair were together.

Sure, Cassie sometimes sighed when she saw Katie and Cage walking home together, hand in hand. That was natural. It wasn’t a nasty kind of jealousy at all. More of a longing for having something comparable herself.

‘Okay, let’s see what Katie’s up to,’ Cassie said, opening up the message on her cell phone…

KATIE: Hey, Cassie! What are you up to? Don’t tell me… work? Well we’re going to the park in a bit if you want to join us? We can play with my new Big Bubble Machine! See you later (hopefully!) – K XoXo

Cassie’s eyes lit up at the mention of the bubble machine. Katie had been talking about it for ages and had been delighted when her Daddy had surprised her with it as a gift recently.

The prospect of fun in the park with a fancy-pants new bubble machine was certainly an attractive prospect that was for sure.

But Cassie wanted to make sure that she was happy with the comic first. She couldn’t enjoy herself properly if she felt there was still work to do to get it just right.

Perfect in fact.

The thing was, Cassie was a perfectionist. It meant that her work was always done to a great standard. And it explained why her comic was getting more and more popular. The readers could see that she cared and spent a great deal of time on it.

But the downside of being such a perfectionist was that sometimes it spilled over into something less positive. Cassie would spend hours poring over the smallest details. Things that probably in reality weren’t even noticeable to a single reader. But if Cassie knew something could be improved by even the tiniest of percentages, then she wouldn’t stop until it was fixed.

Cassie picked out a pineapple and peach juice box from this refrigerator and drained it down in three or four thirsty gulps. She hadn’t realized just how thirsty she had been. Working on the final stages of a comic was always intense and Cassie would sometimes totally forget to feed and water herself.

Before getting back to work, Cassie messaged Katie to tell her that she would join them all at the park as soon as she was done.

‘Okay, back to it, Bouncer,’ Cassie said, petting her stuffie before placing Bouncer back on the desk at the side of her computer monitor. ‘These edits won’t finish themselves!’

Three hours later and Cassie was finally done.

‘ Urgh , I’m beat,’ Cassie said, leaning back in her chair and wistfully looking out of the window. ‘Will my friends even still be at the park? Cage is strict with timekeeping so may have taken Katie home by now. Sydney doesn’t have a Daddy, but she wouldn’t have stayed out on her own I don’t think.’

But all wasn’t lost.

Not quite yet.

Cassie sent Katie a message and quickly received a response. Great news! They were still at the park. Cage had said that because Katie had been so good an obedient all week, she was allowed to stay out late tonight. The fact that Cage’s Daddy friends were going to be coming with some of their favorite beers was only a coincidence.

Yeah, right.

Still, Cassie wasn’t going to complain. All that she cared about was that she still had time for some fun with her friends. The Daddies could drink all the beer they wanted if it meant that Cassie could hang out with Katie and Sydney.

CASSIE: That’s super-duper-epic! Let me do one more thing on my socials and I’ll be with you quicker than a shake of a neon green rabbit’s tail! C XoXo

Cassie sent the message to Katie and very quickly logged onto her comic’s social media accounts. As usual, there were lots of positive comments. Praise for the recent issues. Lots of sharing of favorite parts and illustrations. It truly warmed Cassie’s heart to see her passion being appreciated by people.

Then she saw it.

The comment. There was always one. Without fail, it seemed like someone always felt the need to write something stinky and salty.

Urgh.

Why? Why do people have to be so mean.

I feel… crappy.

Cassie read and re-read a negative comment about the comic. It wasn’t constructive criticism. It was trolling. Mean, stinky trolling.

Cassie knew that not everyone was going to love her comic. That was fine. There were plenty of things that Cassie didn’t love herself. But what Cassie couldn’t get her head around was the way that some people took pleasure from being negative online.

It was part of life, yes.

But for Cassie it always felt worse. It took her back to how she felt when she was in her last relationship. Cruel, unnecessary, and unconstructive comments hurt her feelings.

She couldn’t help feeling it.

Cassie was a sensitive soul.

‘Will you hop over to this meanie’s house and do some toxic bunny poops on his lawn?’ Cassie asked, picking Bouncer up and giving him a big squeeze for comfort. ‘After all the work I’ve done today too. Maybe I should block the account? But if I do that, I might get a reputation as a diva. I just wish people could be nice.’

Cassie logged out of her social media. She then did what she always did. She buried the pain into her work.

It didn’t take too long.

After a few adjustments on some of the comic panels, Cassie felt good again. She’d improved the overall appearance and added some nice dialogue boxes. It was a good feeling.

The troll was a distant memory.

For now, at least.

With her mind racing with possibilities as to the fun she would soon be having at the park with her friends and the bubble machine, Cassie sprung up from her chair and bounded over to the shoe rack to put on her favorite hi-tops. They were rainbow colored and a special Japanese import Cassie had spent weeks seeking out.

The trainers were far from cheap.

Still, Cassie loved them and that was in part down to the memory of buying them with her first comic book paycheck. She had been in her second year of art school, and it had signified the moment where she felt like she could actually have a career doing what she loved.

It had been a momentous occasion, that was for sure.

Cassie finished tying up the laces and grabbed Bouncer before carefully placing him in his favorite spot just at the top of her backpack so he could see out.

It was time to leave the apartment.

Time to leave the work behind for a moment and put the online trolls well and truly in the shade

It was time for Cassie to have some fun in the sun.