Comatose with Benefits

Comatose with Benefits

Nicole Jamison · Ongoing · 53.2k Words

764
Hot
765
Views
0
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

Sunday Bell needs a job. August Wilde needs someone willing to talk to a man who can’t talk back. It should be the easiest paycheck of her life. Hired as a companion to a handsome billionaire lying in a coma, Sunday fills the quiet with everything from mystery novels and family stories to unsolicited opinions and questionable 1980s workout routines. With August unable to complain, she quickly gets comfortable being completely, unapologetically herself. But the longer Sunday spends at his bedside, the less quiet the room begins to feel. A movement here, a strangely timed reaction there, and little moments that leave her wondering whether her imagination is getting the better of her, or whether August Wilde might not be as unreachable as everyone believes. What begins as the strangest job Sunday has ever accepted soon becomes something neither of them could have planned.
Comatose With Benefits is a quirky, slow-burn romantic suspense filled with humor, mystery, unexpected intimacy, and one very inconvenient billionaire.

Chapter 1

Sunday Bell knew three things about dead people: they kept too many extension cords, somebody in the family always wanted the ugliest piece of furniture, and nobody ever labeled the keys. She stood in the middle of the late Mrs. Wilma Carraway’s bedroom with seven mystery keys in one palm and a price sticker stuck to the back of her wrist. “Of course you don’t have labels,” she muttered. “That would be helpful.”

A glance in the dresser mirror caught her before she turned away. Her dark braids had been twisted into a loose bun that had looked respectable around breakfast, though one had escaped beside her cheek. Black-framed glasses sat low on her nose, and dust streaked one side of her brown face. Sunday rubbed at it with the back of her hand and made it worse. Her faded overalls hugged her soft, curvy frame over a pale yellow T-shirt, practical enough for crawling beneath tables and squeezing between furniture nobody had moved since the Clinton administration. The bedroom had been untouched for nearly a year. Dust softened the mahogany dresser, and a faded chenille bedspread sagged beneath boxes marked KEEP, SELL, and DONATE. Mrs. Carraway had apparently loved porcelain birds, floral perfume, and hiding money in places no reasonable human being would look.

Sunday had already found eighty dollars inside a Christmas card from 2009 and another twenty tucked beneath a ceramic duck. She’d counted both finds twice before sealing them in the family envelope, which was ridiculous. Sunday never counted cash twice. Lately, every number stuck. Eighty dollars, twenty dollars, and what the secretary downstairs might bring. What Bea could get for the silver service. With no estate scheduled after Carraway, price tags had begun turning into groceries, gas, and how many weeks Sunday could survive without touching the Bell & Found account.

She slipped the keys into her pocket and opened the next drawer. “Let’s see what else you’ve been hiding, Wilma.” Talking to deceased clients technically wasn’t part of her job. Beatrice Hollowell had once called it unprofessional. Sunday had pointed out that none of the clients had complained. Handkerchiefs, costume jewelry, two unopened packages of pantyhose and a tiny velvet box. “Well, hello.”

Inside sat a gold wedding band, scratched nearly smooth. Not especially valuable. Maybe fifty dollars, depending on weight. When Sunday lifted it, though, a narrow strip of yellowed paper rested underneath. She unfolded it.

Forty-seven years. Still you.

The price in her head disappeared, there it was. That was the part she loved. Not the expensive china downstairs or the antique secretary the family had nearly fought over. It was finding the small proof that somebody had lived here. Loved here. Had forty-seven years with someone and tucked the evidence beneath a wedding ring. Sunday refolded the note and returned it to the box. Definitely not going on the sale table. Her phone buzzed in her back pocket. Momma, probably. Retta Bell considered thirty uninterrupted minutes sufficient evidence that something might have happened to her youngest daughter. Sunday pulled out the phone.

BEA.

Well, that couldn’t be good. “I found another wedding ring,” Sunday said when she answered.

Beatrice Hollowell didn’t bother with hello. “Are you finished upstairs?”

“Almost.”

“You said almost forty minutes ago.”

“I’m making this one last.”

Silence.

Sunday immediately wished she’d kept her mouth shut. Bea’s voice softened. “Sunday.”

“I know.”

“Carraway was always going to be our last sale.”

“I said I know.” Sunday picked at the sticker on her wrist. “Knowing something and liking it are two entirely different hobbies.”

“Be downstairs in five minutes,” Bea said.

“Ten.”

“Five.”

The call ended. Sunday looked at the phone. “Retirement has made her mean.”

She photographed the ring for Mrs. Carraway’s daughter, packed the personal items separately, and headed downstairs. Bea waited at the dining table in a cream linen blouse, black trousers, and enough turquoise jewelry to stock a small gift shop. At seventy-two, her silver bob still sat perfectly against her jaw, and tortoiseshell glasses rested low on her nose as she examined a serving spoon. She had taught Sunday how to recognize dovetail joints, read maker’s marks, negotiate with grieving relatives, and never trust anyone who announced something was definitely an original Tiffany. “You took eleven minutes.”

“You’re retired, where do you have to be?”

“Somewhere that isn’t here.”

Sunday placed the velvet box beside her. “Wedding ring and personal note underneath. Daughter needs to decide.”

Bea peered inside. “Good catch.”

Two words, practically a parade. Sunday reached for the clipboard. “Anybody call about next week?”

Bea didn’t answer. Her fingers stopped. “Bea?”

“You know there isn’t a next week.”

“I know what you said. I’m asking if anybody called.”

“No.”

Sunday picked up the silver spoon Bea had been examining. Sterling, seventy-five dollars on a good day. Groceries, a tank of gas, and part of the electric bill. She hated that her brain had started doing that. For four years, she had been saving for Bell & Found, the vintage shop she’d planned so long that her sister Lilah had threatened to throw her a grand-opening party whether a store existed or not. Sunday had the name, the logo, a notebook full of ideas, and a folder on her laptop labeled POSSIBLE LOCATIONS.

She’d gotten closer once. Six months ago, Sunday had stood inside a narrow storefront with exposed brick, crooked wooden floors, and a little brass bell above the door that had made her fall in love before she reached the counter. Then the landlord slid a three-year lease across the desk. Personal guarantee. Rent due whether Bell & Found sold three thousand dollars that month or three. The empty shop had stopped looking charming and started looking hungry. Sunday had handed the pen back.

Bea set down the spoon. “You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“Thinking so loudly I can hear it.”

“That’s not a thing.”

“With you, it is.” Bea reached for her phone. “I sent you something.”

Sunday’s phone chimed.

PRIVATE COMPANION — TEMPORARY

Reading, conversation, music, light personal assistance, private residence, and discretion essential.

Then she reached the compensation. Her fingers tightened around the spoon. “Fifteen hundred dollars a week?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“For talking?”

“Among other things.”

“Bea, I have been giving that away for free.”

“Your entire family knows.”

Sunday ignored that. “Who needs this much companionship?”

“Apply and find out.”

There was no employer name, no company, and applications were being handled through a private staffing agency. “Sounds weird.”

“You like weird.”

“I like old lamps shaped like flamingos, that’s different.”

“Then don’t apply.”

Sunday stared at the listing. Fifteen hundred dollars, every week. Bell & Found flashed through her mind: mismatched shelves, handwritten history cards, the little counter she’d already sketched three different ways. Maybe this wasn’t taking her away from the dream. Maybe it was how she finally got there. Sunday hit APPLY before common sense could catch up. Bea smiled without looking at her. Sunday narrowed her eyes. “What do you know?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“And you’re unemployed.”

Fair.

The confirmation appeared on Sunday’s screen.

Thank you, Ms. Bell. If your experience meets our client’s needs, you will be contacted for a confidential interview.

Sunday slipped the phone into her pocket. Fifteen hundred dollars a week to keep somebody company. How difficult could that possibly be?

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Mated To The Last Scribe

Mated To The Last Scribe

1.3k Views · Ongoing · Lyra Lupine
Every story Iris Vale writes comes true.

A missing woman is found exactly where her latest story said she would be.

A warehouse burns down hours after she publishes another.

Then anonymous messages begin appearing.

WE KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW.

The problem is that Iris doesn't know anything.

At least, she doesn't think she does.

When her stories attract the attention of billionaire Alpha Cassian Blackmoor, Iris is pulled into a hidden world of werewolves, secrets, and deadly conspiracies.

Cassian believes she may be connected to a mystery that has claimed the lives of powerful Alphas for years.

His wolf believes something else.

That she is his mate.

As enemies close in and events from her stories begin unfolding in real life, Iris must uncover the truth behind her impossible gift before she becomes the next target.

Because someone is watching.

Someone is waiting.

And someone will kill to keep the truth buried.
Cursed To Be His

Cursed To Be His

1.6k Views · Ongoing · Sophie Smith
Talia Morgan was born a wolf.
At thirteen, everything changed.
After her parents were murdered, she was cursed by a powerful witch and used as a vessel for Elder magic. Saving her life came at an impossible cost; the curse was broken, but so was the wolf inside her, leaving her human.
Ten years later, Talia hides her grief behind sharp sarcasm and a smile she no longer believes. When a rogue attack proves she can no longer protect herself, or the people she loves, she leaves the only home she's ever known for the quiet human town of Ashbourne Hollow, determined to disappear.
Instead, she catches the attention of the town's most dangerous owner.
Alaric Lazarus is a vampire who rules from the black castle overlooking Ashbourne Hollow. He is cold, enigmatic, and impossible to read, but he awakens something in Talia she can't explain. She doesn't trust him. He trusts her even less.
Then vampires begin turning up dead.
Forced into an uneasy alliance, Talia and Alaric uncover a trail that leads back to the family she lost... and the curse she thought she'd escaped. As old enemies emerge from the shadows and buried secrets come to light, Talia discovers that everything she believed about her past was a lie.
Because the curse that stole her wolf was never meant to save her.
It was meant to lead her to him.
This is book 3 in the series, but it can be read as a standalone.
Book 1 - The Matchmaker
Book 2 - The Heir of Flame and Fang
Omega Bound

Omega Bound

2.7m Views · Ongoing · Veronica White
Ayla Frost is a beautiful, rare omega. Kidnapped, tortured, and trafficked to rogue clans and corrupt alphas to do with as they pleased.  Kept alive in her cage, broken and abandoned by her wolf, she becomes mute and has given up on hope for a better life until one explosion changes everything. 

Thane Knight is the alpha of the Midnight Pack of the La Plata Mountain Range, the largest wolf shifter pack in the world. He is an alpha by day and hunts the shifter trafficking ring with his group of mercenaries by night. His hunt for vengeance leads to one raid that changes his life. 

Tropes:
Touch her and die/Slow burn romance/Fated Mates/Found family twist/Close circle betrayal/Cinnamon roll for only her/Traumatized heroine/Rare wolf/Hidden powers/Knotting/Nesting/Heats/Luna/Attempted assassination
Where The Ice Gives Way

Where The Ice Gives Way

87.4k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Charlotte Pierce is used to surviving in motion. New towns, new schools, the same old house on the edge of nowhere, and the same rule that keeps her standing. Keep her twin brother, Charlie safe. Keep his hockey dream alive. Keep her own needs quiet. She works too much, sleeps too little, and saves the one thing that still feels like hers for the middle of the night, when she can lace up her worn skates and carve freedom into dangerous frozen ice. Charlotte and Charlie shifted once, years ago, and never understood what it meant. They had no pack, no guidance and no protection. Just two twins clinging to each other and pretending the voice in their heads was stress, imagination, or loneliness. Then they move to Wellington.
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)

Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha

Pregnant by My Husband's Rival Alpha

16.3k Views · Completed · Christina
I woke up three years into a marriage I barely remembered—pregnant with twins that weren't my husband's.

Those words should have destroyed me, but the truth was worse: I'd been used as a broodmare by the man who swore to love me, set up in a hotel room with a stranger because My husband Alexander Cross couldn't father children himself, and now I carried the secret babies of Damon Lester—the most powerful and dangerous Alpha in San Loris—while my own family replaced me with the daughter they'd always wanted. But when that same stranger's doctor appeared at my door, when twenty million dollars exchanged hands over a fake perfume bearing my secret identity, and when Damon's gray eyes locked onto mine with recognition I couldn't afford, I realized my carefully hidden life as the legendary perfumer Vera was colliding with a pregnancy that could cost me everything.

Could I protect my babies from the husband plotting my death, hide my true identity from the Alpha who's been hunting me for years, and reclaim the freedom I'd buried along with my dreams—even if it means standing alone against the wolves who see me as nothing more than a womb to be used and discarded?
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon

Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon

499.2k Views · Completed · Riley
My name is Audrey, and I'm the adopted daughter of the Bailey family.
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
My Benchwarmer Boyfriend's Secret

My Benchwarmer Boyfriend's Secret

1.8k Views · Completed · Marina Ellington
A wild party night leaves me with fuzzy memories and a mortifying encounter I can't quite piece together. Then I meet Marco—the quiet basketball player who just transferred for training—and there's an instant spark I can't explain.

As the team's benchwarmer, Marco practices harder than anyone, though few seems to notice. There's something about his quiet determination that draws me in, and I find myself falling for the underdog.

But when Marco's true story starts unraveling—about that first night, about who he really is, about the future he's destined for—I realize I might have gotten in way over my head.

And there's another problem: this was always meant to be temporary. His training program has an end date, and we're both fighting against a reality that seems determined to pull us apart.

When everything is on the line, how far are we willing to go for love?
One Weekend with the Billionaire

One Weekend with the Billionaire

76k Views · Ongoing · Bella Moondragon
“When done properly, this position can be most satisfying for a woman because it allows deep penetration."
I open my mouth to respond, but all that comes out is a staggered breath and a small sigh. He chuckles, a low, rough rumble and then leans down and kisses the middle of my back.
I feel the tip of him again at my entryway. He pushes in slightly, and my body comes to life again. My muscles react to his presence, contracting and loosening, as if my body is trying to suck him deep inside.
He's my husband's boss, so this is supposed to be wrong.
So why does it feel so right?


Braxton Merriweather always gets what he wants. Now, he wants her--Julia Thompson, the wife of one of his workers. From the moment he first laid eyes on her, he knew he had to possess her in every way.
When Jeff Thompson takes him up on the bargain he proposes, Braxton is shocked. He's even more surprised when Mrs. Thompson agrees.
But now that he's had a taste of her, he wants more. How can he possess a woman who's already married to someone else?

Julia feels trapped by her marriage to her high school sweetheart. In the two years since they've been married, he's changed, and not for the better. When billionaire Braxton Merriweather shows interest in her, she's flattered. And intrigued. Is it possible that one of the richest men in the world could really want her?
And if so... what does she do about her husband?
One Weekend with the Billionaire is a sexy story for mature readers.
A Queen Among Darkness (Book 4 in the Gods' Saga)

A Queen Among Darkness (Book 4 in the Gods' Saga)

6.3k Views · Ongoing · ADB_Stories
Isolde’s life was full of love and joy. She was set to be High priestess of the makkari, but everything changed in a single night when she lost everything at the hands of someone she thought she could trust.

For centuries, she has been on the run, helping the supernatural community under the cloak of anonymity while she works to clear her name and save the very people after her from destruction.

Enemies are closing in, but an unexpected complication befalls her when she realises she’s been fated to someone who wants her species exterminated. After all, an evil chance seldom comes alone.

A Queen Among Darkness is the 4th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.

Books in the series in order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Generation Coming Soon)
Bella and Her Beast

Bella and Her Beast

19.9k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
For all the little girls who grew up wondering what happens after the prince kisses the girl—this is the story they never told you.
.
Locked in her frozen tower, Bella dreamed of warmth, of touch, of freedom and of love. Cursed with the power of ice and snow, she’s spent her life alone. A secret they tried to protect the world from. Her only escape comes in the form of the books she reads. Stories of heat, desire, and the kind of love that could melt even her frostbitten heart.
Damien is the Beast. A dragon King with a temper forged in flame and a soul hollowed by duty. The world fears him. The people call him a monster. But beneath the scales and the rage lies a man who has never been touched by love.
When frost meets fire, the world shatters. She was never meant to leave her tower. He was never meant to find her. But destiny doesn’t bow to kings or care for cages and now the question burns through them both: Can Bella have her Beast? Or will the girl of snow melt in the heat of his desire?

.
"I’m keeping her."
"What?"
Before I can react, he scoops her up. Her small body fits easily in the cradle of his talons. For a split second, she looks startled, but not afraid. Her hand rests against one scaled finger, and she stares up at him with that same curious wonder, as though she’s already forgotten she was ever meant to fear me.
"Put her down," I try to command, panic threading through my thoughts. "You’ll hurt her."
"She’s ours," the beast insists, possessive and fierce. "Our snowflake."
Where I End and She Begins

Where I End and She Begins

1.1k Views · Completed · Briana Wilson
Amelia is starting high school with her best friend Lola — confident, magnetic, fearless Lola — the girl who makes the world feel manageable. While Amelia juggles grief, an absent father, and the heavy responsibility of raising her younger brothers, Lola is her escape. Her courage. Her voice. The version of herself she wishes she could be.
But when a body lies at Amelia’s feet, and her hands are covered in blood that isn’t hers, one question echoes louder than the rest:
How did it come to this?
As the school year unfolds, cracks begin to show — in friendships, in family, and in Amelia’s own mind. The lines between loyalty and control blur. Between truth and perception. Between who she is… and who she thinks she needs to be.
Because some friendships don’t just shape you.
They consume you.
And when the illusion shatters, there’s always something left behind.
The Alpha King's Human Mate

The Alpha King's Human Mate

469.9k Views · Completed · HC Dolores
“You must understand something, little mate,” Griffin said, and his face softened,

“I have waited nine years for you. That’s nearly a decade since I’ve felt this emptiness inside me. Part of me began to wonder if you didn’t exist or you’d already died. And then I found you, right inside my own home.” 

He used one of his hands to stroke my cheek and tingles erupted everywhere. 

“I’ve spent enough time without you and I will not let anything else keep us apart. Not other wolves, not my drunken father who’s barely holding himself together the past twenty years, not your family  – and not even you.”


Clark Bellevue has spent her entire life as the only human in the wolf pack - literally. Eighteen years ago, Clark was the accidental result of a brief affair between one of the most powerful Alphas in the world and a human woman. Despite living with her father and her werewolf half-siblings, Clark has never felt like she really belonged in the werewolf world. But right as Clark plans to leave the werewolf world behind for good, her life gets flipped upside down by her mate: the next Alpha King, Griffin Bardot. Griffin has been waiting years for the chance to meet his mate, and he's not about to let her go anytime soon. It doesn't matter how far Clark tries to run from her destiny or her mate - Griffin intends to keep her, no matter what he has to do or who stands in his way.