Chapter 1What He's Really Thinking

The game of Truth or Dare ended with me kissing the guy I’ve been secretly in love with for a year.

And somehow, it gave me the ability to read his mind.

After I did it, he retreated to a corner of the couch, his expression as cool and unreadable as ever. He didn't say a word.

But a voice, his voice, echoed clearly in my head.

Her lips are so soft.

I need to figure out a way to make her kiss me again.

* * *

It was a stupid party dare. The kind of thing you do in college when the music is too loud and the air is thick with cheap beer and bad decisions. I lost a round of cards, and the penalty was a dare.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled a card from the deck fanned out on the coffee table. The moment I drew it, the crowded living room erupted.

My best friend, Mia, who was squeezed next to me on the couch, let out a shriek of laughter so loud it vibrated through my skull. My hand holding the card started to tremble. If she was laughing that hard, I must have drawn something mortifying.

“Oh my god, Chloe! Open your eyes, you have to see this!”

Mia slapped my shoulder, urging me on. Bracing myself, I opened my eyes. The words on the card made my trembling worse.

【Kiss the person next to you. Passionately.】

There were only two people next to me. On one side was Mia. On the other was Noah Evans.

He wasn’t even supposed to be sitting there. Earlier, he’d claimed the cigarette smoke from across the room was getting to him and asked to swap seats with some guy. He’d ended up right next to me.

The catcalls and whoops from our friends intensified. Mia put her hands on her hips, her grin wicked. “Just so we’re clear, you are not kissing me,” she declared. “Girl-on-girl is a no-go for this dare!”

With that, every eye in the room landed on Noah.

The noise level spiked again.

My whole body went rigid. I turned to look at him, my palms slick with sweat. He sat there calmly, the dim party lights casting his face in shadow, making him impossible to read. We’d been in the same friend group for a year, but I don’t think we’d ever exchanged more than a dozen words. Kissing him felt less plausible than flying to the moon.

“Chloe, this is your shot! Don’t blow it!” Mia hissed in my ear.

I wanted to. God, I wanted to. But how could I?

As if finally sensing the weight of two dozen stares, Noah slowly looked up. His gaze drifted from me to the card in my hand. His expression remained a perfect blank.

My nerve broke. “Maybe we should just skip it…” I mumbled.

“I’m fine with it.”

My voice died in my throat. Noah cut me off, his eyes lifting to meet mine. His face was still passive, but his voice was steady. “I don’t have a problem with it.”