**Lost is a prequel novella to Lost in Us and can be read before or after. **

Whatever might help him forget his past and numb the pain, James has tried it all: booze, car races, fights, and then some. Especially women. College offers plenty of opportunities for everything. . . Especially when you have a trust fund to spend.

Serena spirals deeper and deeper into a hurricane of pain. But no matter how far she falls, there’s no redemption from the overwhelming guilt.

Two souls consumed by their pasts fight to learn how to survive. But all hope seems to be lost.

Until they meet each other.

Excerpt

I see someone who looks vaguely familiar at the bar. She has long black hair and large round eyes. It bugs me that I don’t remember where I saw her before. I have a good memory when it comes to people. Especially women. And especially when they look like her.

It’s only when she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear that it hits me where I saw her before, making that same gesture—last year at the award ceremony of that math contest I sponsored. She was the mentor. I grasp my empty glass firmly in my hand, remembering the details of that day. It took me long enough to forget them. I look around for that rat of a boyfriend who was with her then, but he isn’t anywhere. The only person she seems to be with is the inebriated blonde sitting next to her at the bar.

I scrutinize her, trying to understand what she’s doing in a place like this. She doesn’t belong here. I’m not exactly sure where she belongs, but it’s not here. At any rate, she didn’t strike me as a particularly outgoing type of girl when she was on that stage. I think I know why she’s here. I’ve seen this look before in women. The hunched shoulders. The unsure gaze. Yes, she wears the unmistakable signs of someone who’s been dumped, and who’s trying, but failing, to forget about it. These signs in women usually make me want to run in the opposite direction.

This time, it has an entirely different effect on me. It makes me want to do what I didn’t have the courage to do last year. Walk up to her. I wanted to make her smile then. The haunted look she had in her eyes back then isn’t as visible now, but it lingers there somewhere. Just like it lingers in me. When it takes over again, I want to make sure she has someone who can put a smile on her beautiful face.

And I still want to taste her lips and those delicious-looking breasts, just like I wanted back then.

My name is Layla Hagen and I am a New Adult Contemporary Romance author.I fell in love with books when I was nine years old, and my love affair with stories continues even now, many years later.

I write romantic stories and can’t wait to share them with the world.

And I drink coffee. Lots of it, in case the photo didn’t make it obvious enough

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