CASH: A BBW Romance (Big Hot Alphas Book 4)

by Kate Hunt

  It really is heaven here.

  A few minutes later, though, the peaceful water around me shifts. Abruptly, I feel myself pulled; it feels like something has been snatched out from under me. I kick harder, trying to move out of the invisible grasp, but I can’t escape it.

  The current starts to pull me under, and panic blooms in my chest.

  I’m pulled under for several seconds before I manage to resurface. When I come back up, I realize how much further away from shore I am now and the panic in my chest grows hotter. I try my hardest to swim back to shore, but the current is too powerful.

  Fuck. Fuck. I can’t get back.

  Nightmarish thoughts of being pulled out to sea flood my mind.

  No. This can’t happen. Please.

  Only able to tread water now, I call out for help. I’m not even sure what I yell. Cash’s name, maybe.

  I think of us as kids. Think of him kissing me again after all those years. Think of the future I want so desperately to have with him. I can’t lose that. I can’t.

  But my arms are starting to get tired. My lungs are starting to burn. The very idea of being on land feels suddenly impossible. Like it’s something I’ll never experience again.

  I yell out with what voice I have left. I fight the current. I tell myself I won’t die out here. I won’t. I can’t.

  But then the water pulls me under again.

  And everything goes black.

  Chapter Five

  Cash

  The phone call comes just as my parents and sister and I are getting on the road.

  Sir, I’m calling about Dani Harlow. We’re contacting you because you’re the last person she called. She was just admitted to the hospital—

  After that, everything is a blur. I tell my dad to stop the car. To turn around. I tell the woman on the phone that I’ll be there soon. Palm trees smear past the window as we speed toward the hospital and I fill in my family about what little I know: that Dani apparently got caught in a rip current, that she nearly drowned, that she’s alive but comatose in the ICU.

  “Oh, Cash,” my mom says, covering her mouth with her hands as she twists around to look at me. “Honey. I’m so, so sorry.”

  I don’t think it really hits me, though, until an hour an a half later, when the doctors finally let me visit Dani. When I see her lying in the hospital bed, looking so vulnerable, her eyes closed and all those tubes keeping her alive—fuck.

  Devastation rips through me.

  I sit with Dani for what both feels like forever and no time at all. When the doctor comes in to check on her, I search his face, trying to interpret his expression, but I can’t tell jack shit. Even when he turns to me and comments about her condition, I still can’t fucking tell what he’s really saying.

  When the doctor leaves the room, I get up and follow him, calling out after him once we’re away from Dani’s room.

  “Is she going to make it?” I say.

  The doctor’s shoulders drop. “To be honest, son, we really don’t know yet.”

  “But there’s gotta be—” My jaw clenches. “Just tell me. If it’s bad, just tell me.”

  “We’ve run tests, done scans,” he says. “At this point, all we can do is keep monitoring her and wait.”

  I hate that Dani’s fate is out of my control. Hate that this doctor can’t do anything more for her. But I also understand that it’s pointless to get angry about it.

  “Okay,” I say, exhaling a breath. “Then I’ll just keep waiting.”

  I head over to the waiting room to find my parents and sister. My parents are talking quietly and my sister is paging through a magazine, which she sets aside as soon as she sees me walk in.

  I give them the lack of update, then tell them I’m going to stay with Dani. They offer to stay longer in the waiting room, but I refuse to let them spend the rest of their vacation like this.

  “Go,” I tell them. “Enjoy yourselves. I’ll call you if anything changes.”

  After they leave, I return to Dani’s room and take my place again in the chair beside her bed. At first, I just sit there, like I was doing before. But after a while it no longer feels like enough. So I begin talking to her. Who the hell knows if she can hear me. But I do it anyway. I tell her how much I love her, and I tell her about the best memories I have of the two of us, and I tell her about all the things I’m looking forward to when she wakes up.

  Three days pass. I don’t realize it at first, though. Time doesn’t feel the same anymore. All I know is that suddenly my parents and sister are there at the hospital again, and my mom’s hand is on my shoulder, and she’s saying, “Cash, honey. Our flight leaves in two hours.”

  But there’s no way I’m leaving Dani. No way I’m going home while she’s like this.

  “I’m staying,” I say, no room for debate in my statement.

  After a moment, my mom’s hand squeezes my shoulder, and then my dad’s hand does, and then my sister’s arms wrap around me from behind.

  “We’ll be thinking of her, Cash,” Felicity says. “Take care.”

  “So how long have you two been together?”

  I look up at the nurse who just came in this morning to check Dani’s vitals. She’s smiling kindly at me from the other side of Dani’s hospital bed.

  “Oh, uh…we actually just reconnected. But we were together years ago.”

  “Yeah? That’s sweet.” The nurse checks something on one of the monitors and presses a button. At the same time, something beeps beside me. After a second, I realize it’s my phone. I pick it up and see that I just got a text from my buddy Holt back home: Hey man, you back in town yet?

  Staring at the screen, I freeze, unable to type anything. I know I should probably just respond with something like, No, something came up, I’ll explain later, but Holt is my closest friend—has been since we moved to San Diego—and to be honest, it would help to talk to him about all of this. He knows about my relationship with Dani in high school, and knows that I never really got over her.

  “Need to make a call?” the nurse asks. “Go ahead, hon. Don’t worry. I’ll come get you if she wakes up.”

  “Right,” I say. “Thanks.”

  I get up and walk out of the room, blinking at the change of scenery. The hospital hallways feel endless but I find my way down to the ground floor and out into a courtyard. Nobody else is around.

  Holt picks up on the second ring.

  “Hey, man,” I say.

  “Hey!” Holt says. “What’s up? How was Hawaii?”

  “I’m still here, actually.” I run a hand through my hair and blow out air between my lips. “You got a few minutes to talk?”

  He tells me he does. Asks me what’s going on. I tell him about running into Dani, about reconnecting with her…about the accident, the coma.

  “Shit, man,” he says. “I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

  “Thanks. But no. There’s nothing to do but wait.”

  “Jesus. A fucking coma. Can’t even imagine what you’re going through right now.”

  “Yeah. It really puts things into perspective.” I look up at the sky. Watch the clouds drift. “I’m going to propose to her, Holt.”

  “You’re gonna what?”

  “I’m going to ask her to marry me.”

  Holt laughs. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Whenever you’ve mentioned her over the past decade, you get this…I dunno. This fucking look on your face.”

  A pained smile forms on my face. I glance back at the hospital. “Hey, I should probably go.”

  “All right. Hang in there, bud. I’ll be thinking of you both.”

  I head back inside and take the elevator back up to the fourth floor. The nurse is just finishing brushing Dani’s hair when I step into the room.

  “Ah,” the nurse says, glancing over her shoulder at me before looking back to Dani. “Your boyfriend’s back, sweetie.”

  The nurse finishes up and I thank her on her way out. Then Dani and I are al
one again. I sit down in the chair beside her bed, take her hand into mine, and give it a gentle squeeze.

  I’d give anything just to feel her squeeze back.

  Chapter Six

  Dani

  The world is indecipherable when I open my eyes.

  I don’t know where I am. How I got here. Or why I feel this…strange. It’s like my body isn’t mine anymore. Like my head isn’t mine anymore.

  Even trying to speak feels like too much.

  Then, through the haze, I think I see Cash. Or someone who looks like Cash, anyway. It’s hard to tell. The figure is hunched over, his head in his hands. Is that him? Maybe I’m just projecting.

  No. I swear I heard him talk to me when I was gone. I swear I heard his voice. I can’t remember what he said to me, but the comforting vibration of his words is etched into my soul.

  But where did I go? What the hell happened?

  Vague memories of water—heavy, relentless water—drift to the forefront of my mind.

  I try again to speak. Some kind of garbled noise comes out of my mouth. Jesus, my throat burns. I try again, pushing past the pain.

  Instead, another voice speaks.

  “Dani?”

  The second Cash’s voice reaches my ears, my eyes prick with tears. It is him. Weakly, I try to reach for him. He moves toward me. Takes my hand. Squeezes it. His face comes into better focus, his gorgeous eyes full of love and relief.

  “Hi, beautiful,” he says, his voice breaking.

  The rest of the room comes into focus then, too. I finally understand where I am. Again, memories of the water come back to me. The ocean. Swimming. Getting stuck in the current.

  Then nothing.

  “Cash,” I choke out, my voice hoarse.

  He moves closer and leans down to give me a hug. I can tell he’s being cautious—I can only imagine how frail I must seem—but it still feels so good to have his arms around me.

  It feels so good just to breathe him in.

  I get better. Slowly. And even though I tell him he doesn’t need to help me recover, Cash refuses to leave my side. He helps me get better at the hospital in Hawaii; once I’m discharged, he flies home with me.

  At my apartment, he demands that I rest while he takes care of everything: picking up groceries, whipping up comfort food, driving me to follow-up doctor appointments, being patient with me when I struggle to do something. At night, he sleeps by my side, his arm protectively draped over me.

  The first time he makes love to me after the accident, I break down in tears, because it’s the first time I fully feel like myself again.

  After two weeks together at my apartment, Cash flies home to take care of some things. It’s crazy how much I miss him when he’s gone, even though I know I’ll see him again in a couple days. The second he comes back, I jump into his arms, not even waiting until he can set down the bags he’s holding.

  “Hey,” he says, laughing as he kisses me. “You miss me or something?”

  “So much.”

  We share another kiss, then I look at all the stuff he’s brought back with him. Ever since coming back from Hawaii, we’ve talked a lot about him moving up here so we can be together, but we haven’t actually talked specifics yet.

  “You pack up your whole apartment?” I tease.

  “Just the essentials,” he says. He unzips one bag and opens it up so I can see. “Shirts. Jeans. Shoes.”

  “Good choices,” I say.

  He unzips another bag. “Work stuff. My laptop.”

  “Also good,” I say.

  He opens up a third bag and kneels down to dig through it.

  “And then there’s…this,” he says, pulling out a small box. A ring box.

  I stare at it, unblinking, as Cash opens it up. Inside is the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen. But I only gape at it for a second before drawing my gaze to Cash’s eyes.

  “I love you, Dani,” he says. “I have for so long. And when I almost lost you again…that was the scariest fucking thing I’ve ever experienced. But even if that hadn’t happened, I’d still be here right now, kneeling before you—because you and I were always meant to be together. Will you marry me?”

  I’m already nodding before he gets the question out of his mouth.

  “Yes,” I sob, falling into his arms. “Yes. Yes.”

  Chapter Seven

  Epilogue – Cash

  One Year Later

  I’m in the middle of dreaming about my wife when her honeyed voice draws me out of my slumber.

  “I’m getting in the shower,” Dani murmurs against my shoulder. “Join me?”

  I open my eyes just in time to see her slip out from beneath the sheets. When I get my ass out of bed, she’s in the bathroom, naked beneath the hot stream of water.

  I tear off my clothes and step into the shower with Dani, cursing under my breath at the sight of her bare curves. Sliding a hand over her ass, I pull her toward me and press a kiss to her wet neck.

  “I was dreaming about you,” I murmur.

  “Yeah?” She runs a hand down and wraps it around my cock. I’m already hard, but the slow, teasing strokes she gives me make me a fucking rock. “What were you dreaming about?”

  “Your sweet cunt.” I pin her against the wet tiles behind us and pull up one of her thighs. When I slide into her, she moans that gorgeous moan I love so damn much. I give her every thick inch of my cock, over and over again, as the hot shower water rains down on us.

  Together, our breathing deepens. Together, we crest the wave. Our mouths crush together as we both come, her pussy pulsing around me as I spill into her.

  “Fuck, you’re good at that,” Dani pants, smiling into our kiss.

  “Making you come?”

  “Mmhmm.”

  “I think I need to do it again. Just to make sure.”

  “I think so, too,” she purrs.

  Half an hour later, we’re finally dressed and out of the bedroom. I start to cook breakfast while Dani gets our little one up. Jasper is three months old and the most adorable baby you’ve ever seen in your life.

  Not that I’m biased or anything.

  “Good morning, Daddy!” Dani says for Jasper as the two of them come into the kitchen. I chuckle when I see how sleepy Jasper still is.

  “Morning, bubba,” I say, giving his chubby cheek a kiss.

  A month after our engagement, when we found out Dani was pregnant, we were both happy as hell about it. In the whirlwind months that followed, I officially moved up north, Dani and I got married, and we bought a house. We both love this house for a lot of reasons—it’s big enough for our family to keep growing, it’s in a great neighborhood, and it has a finished basement that I’ve converted into a recording studio—but we both agree that its best feature is that it simply feels like home.

  My phone chimes on the counter near Dani and she glances at the screen as she bounces a babbling Jasper in her arms.

  “Text from your sister,” Dani tells me.

  “Want to read it to me?” I say, flipping the bacon in the pan.

  Dani taps the screen. “She wants to know when she can fly up and see the baby again.”

  “Anytime’s good, right?”

  “Yeah. Of course.” Dani smiles at me. “I love your family.”

  “What about Holt?” I say, remembering a recent text from him. “He wants to know the same thing.”

  “Hmm.” Dani looks at our son. “What do you think, Jasp? Should we invite Daddy’s friend to come visit, too?”

  Jasper hiccups, and Dani and I both laugh.

  “Well, we’ll figure out the schedule later,” Dani says. She kisses the top of our son’s head. “Such a popular kid already.”

  “Got a feeling that kid’s going to be a heartbreaker,” I say. “I mean, look at those eyes.”

  “He’s got your eyes, Cash.”

  “What? No. He’s got yours. He’s definitely got yours.”

  “You’re nuts,” Dani says, grinning as she pu
lls me toward her for a kiss. “So completely nuts.”

  Thank you for reading!

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  About the Author

  Kate Hunt writes short, sexy, feel-good romances about delicious men and the feisty heroines they can’t live without. Kate is married to her high school sweetheart, unapologetically spoils her pets, and always has a song stuck in her head.

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