"Kiss! Kiss!"

"Come on, make it a real one. Tongue kiss!"

Inside the bar’s private room, a man and a woman locked lips while everyone around them hollered and clapped. The whole place instantly hit peak hype.

Tiana Whitfield stood off to the side with a bright smile, watching like she was enjoying the show. But in her head, she was busy counting the bottles lined up on the table, quietly calculating how much commission she’d make tonight. The more she counted, the better her mood got.

"Should I call you brain-dead, or say you’re just ridiculously chill?" A hand holding a beer bottle landed on Tiana’s shoulder. "Watching your ex making out with the side chick, and you’re still smiling like this?"

Tiana turned and saw Stella Woodard. Since it was her best friend, she didn’t bother pretending. She lifted a brow and curled her lips. "He already cheated, so what else am I supposed to do? Cry on the floor? Might as well make him bleed a little financially and make myself feel better."

Ethan Mercer was Tiana’s ex-boyfriend. Half a month ago, she had caught him cheating. The woman currently wrapped up in his arms, kissing him like no one else existed, was that very same mistress, Fiona Davenport. Three days earlier, Fiona had even gone out of her way to provoke her, showing up to invite Tiana to her birthday party. Tiana had originally wanted to gift her a slap across the face, nice and loud. But then she remembered one simple truth: only an idiot turns down money. So with her silver tongue and straight-up magical people-handling skills, she managed to talk Fiona into booking the party here instead.

Stella looked speechless. "Wow. That’s really all the ambition you’ve got?"

Tiana just shrugged.

Then she suddenly heard someone call her name. She looked up.

Across the room, Fiona was smiling sweetly at her, all soft and harmless on the surface. "Tiana, your turn."

"My turn for what?"

"Truth or Dare." Fiona’s smile widened. "The loser gets to pick who takes the next punishment. Sorry, but I picked you."

She said sorry, but there wasn’t a trace of apology on her face. If anything, the smug challenge in her eyes was practically overflowing. "If you don’t dare, then fine. You just drink this."

As she spoke, she nudged the glass in front of her toward Tiana.

Vodka. Strong stuff too.

Yeah. Ruthless.

Tiana wasn’t even a little surprised by Fiona’s hostility. She tilted her head and smiled lazily. "One glass? That’s it? Why don’t we raise the stakes? If I complete the dare, you drink a whole bottle."

"Oho—!"

Everyone in the room knew there was bad blood between them, so of course they instantly started egging it on. The vibe got louder, messier, more excited by the second.

Fiona’s expression stiffened a little, clearly embarrassed to back down in front of so many people. Seeing that, Ethan quickly stepped in, trying to smooth things over. "Tiana, you—"

"If you don’t want to drink, then forget it."

Tiana didn’t even spare Ethan a glance. She cut him off on the spot, clean and cold.

"Fine. I’m in!"

Fiona Davenport pressed her lips together, a vicious gleam flashing across her eyes. "Then go do your dare right now. Walk out that door, kiss the first man you see, and invite him to spend the night with you."

At that point, Fiona didn’t care about saving face anymore. She threw the words out with pure malice. Guys in a place like this bar were usually just here to mess around. If someone like Tiana Whitfield practically served herself up, there was no way they’d let her off easy. Tonight, right here in front of all their classmates, Fiona was dead set on ruining her completely.

Tiana’s expression shifted. Inside, she was already cursing Fiona a hundred times over, but the words had been said, and there was no taking them back now. So she could only force herself to stay cool, shake off her friend’s attempt to stop her, and walk straight for the door.

She took a deep breath. The moment she pulled open the private room door, she saw several sharply dressed men coming down the hall. She didn’t hesitate for even a second. She strode over, grabbed the tie of the man in the middle, shut her eyes, and kissed him right on the lips.

"Third Brother, look, my bar may be kinda chaotic, but— holy crap! Y-you... th-this... who is this?!"

Marcus Shelton stared at the scene in total disbelief. It took him a full five seconds to get that sentence out. His brother, the one who never had any interest in women, had just gotten force-kissed by some random girl in a bar?

Marcus’s over-the-top shout startled Tiana so badly that she stumbled backward. In her panic, she missed her footing and was just about to fall when an arm suddenly caught her around the waist. The man she had just kissed held her firmly, his dark eyes fixed on her. In the dim bar hallway, that gaze felt dangerously intense.

"Um... I really need a favor here. I’ll give you two hundred. Just let me kiss you once."

Knowing she was in the wrong, Tiana softened her tone and tried to bargain, sounding almost pleading.

Sebastian Ashford’s face stayed unreadable, his eyes dark and impossible to figure out. His deep voice carried a strange, almost tempting pull. "I’ll give you two million. You let me kiss my fill."

As soon as the words fell, he leaned down without the slightest hesitation.