Beneath the Stars (Sugarlake #1)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

ALINA

It’s when I’m walking to the back office that I feel it. The shift in the air. It’s subtle—a ghost of a chill that flickers down my spine.

What the heck? I brush it off, straightening my shoulders and walking through the open door.

I don’t see him at first, but when I do, that chill drops through my body like an iceberg free-falling, freezing me in place.

This isn’t happening.

This cannot be happening.

“Alina! I was wondering if you’d even show up,” my boss, Regina, says as she smiles thinly. She’s annoyed, and rightly so. I should respond, but I don’t. I’m not sure I physically can since my heart has stalled in my chest.

Chase Adams.

I’d love him if I didn’t hate him so much.

There’s a pencil behind his ear, a blueprint rolled up in his hand and another laid out on the desk.

But he isn’t looking at that.

He’s locked on me, mouth partially open, hand frozen halfway through his silky, dark brown hair. When he swallows, my traitorous eyes track the way his throat bobs. “Goldi.”

The nickname travels across the room and pierces me in the chest, jolting me out of my shock. “Don’t call me that,” I snap.

He clamps his mouth shut and nods.

“You two know each other?” Regina points between the two of us.

“Yeah, actually we used?—”

“Our folks are neighbors,” I interrupt, tearing my gaze away from him to focus on her instead. “We grew up together, but no. I never really knew him.”

I stand stoic, my gaze never straying from Regina, but I can feel him.

My body hums, reminding me of the first time I saw him at eleven years old, and just like then, I have to clench my fists to keep from reaching out.