Desire Me If You Can Chapter 22

The colleagues were quite taken aback to see the usually calm Ezra, who rarely showed much emotional change, returning with a flushed face. Why on earth was he like that?

“What’s up? Did something happen? What’s wrong with you?”

“Why did it take you so long? Something went down with that guy, didn’t it?”

“What did that jerk do to you? Tell us, we’ll all take revenge for you!”

The team members immediately surrounded Ezra and bombarded him with questions, but Ezra just gritted his teeth, glared at Grayson, and wouldn’t easily open his mouth.

“That bastard messed with me, that’s all.”

That’s all… but what does that mean?

The team members were dying of curiosity, but Ezra showed no signs of saying anything more. Having no other choice, another guy offered his own guess.

“I guess he said he wouldn’t come? So it took a while to force him to come along…”

“That’s right.”

Ezra spoke up, as if begrudgingly. To the team members who were curious about how he had persuaded him, Ezra spoke honestly.

“He was just sitting there doing absolutely nothing while flirting with Beth, so I passed on what the team leader said. That if he didn’t come, he’d be excluded from deployments. He thought about it for a moment, then followed me.”

“Really? That actually worked?”

The team members looked at each other, surprised by this.

“What? I thought he’d prefer staying in the office.”

“Right, didn’t he come here just to goof off and take it easy?”

“You look cooler when you’re out on a call. The team leader had Miller figured out properly.”

“I’m surprised he’s the type to care about stuff like that.”

“He plays around with women every other day, so naturally, he’d want to look cool.”

“Hmm.”

As they were exchanging words, Wilkins cleared his throat to clear the air. As the gathered men shut their mouths and looked at him, he looked up at Grayson and finally spoke.

“I called you because there’s work you need to do, Miller.”

Grayson looked down at him in place of a verbal response. Since he seemed to be listening at least, Wilkins cleared his throat again and added.

“I’m not sure if you’re aware, but we all became firefighters after passing the proper tests. That’s because once you’re in the field, you need incredible stamina and technical know-how. Your body passes the eye test, at least. But there is a massive difference between the muscles you use for actual activity and muscles you just make look good.”

He then gave Grayson’s body a meaningful once-over before fixing his gaze back on his face, his brow furrowed, as if implying that his physique was merely for show.

“Rushing into a scene where a fire has broken out is a matter of life and death. We are responsible for each other’s lives. If you don’t do your part properly, the lives of your colleagues are also at risk. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

One would have to be an absolute moron not to understand the gist of his long-winded speech.

“So.”

Grayson said with a short sigh, brushing his hair back.

“The point is that you want to test my stamina?”

“Well, yeah, that’s it.”

If Grayson refused here, saying, ‘There was no mention of that beforehand,’ there wasn’t much they could do. In reality, even the chief didn’t know about this.

Instead, in that case, they had fully intended to call him names like “coward,” “wimp,” and “soft-muscle.” Of course, Grayson Miller might not care at all about such labels, but regardless, the mere fact that he refused the stamina test would be enough to deal him a blow.

There wasn’t a single lie in what Wilkins said. They were trusting each other with their lives, and because of that, a firefighter who couldn’t pull their own weight was bound to be weeded out of the herd. Being a woman was no exception; they too became firefighters after undergoing the same training and testing as the men. Each was a proud firefighter in their own right, and running away without passing such a procedure would certainly be a significant strike against his reputation.

With this, we can deal a massive blow to Grayson Miller.

Everyone thought the same thing. On the off chance that Grayson Miller accepted this proposal….

“Understood.”

Grayson accepted it simply.

“I just need to pass the stamina test, right? I’ll do it.”

Wilkins smiled faintly. Of course, they had a contingency plan for this situation as well.

“You just have to pass the track we’ve prepared. However.”

He paused on purpose and looked back.

“Speed is important too, so one of our team members will be running with you. Dane!”

As he snapped his fingers, the red-blonde man standing off in the distance let out a deep sigh. His reaction was blatantly annoyed. However, as if he had no choice, he shrugged his shoulders and slowly walked forward.

Grayson’s eyebrows twitched briefly as he saw his face. The red hair of the man with solid shoulders and a balanced physique shone slightly under the sunlight. Dane stopped walking, his face clearly showing he couldn’t be bothered.

With two tall men standing in the center, everyone’s eyes automatically turned toward them. A silent current flowed between the two.

Wilkins, leaving Dane behind him, stood with his chest puffed out and declared.

“If you can beat Dane, we’ll acknowledge you as a team member.”

“Ah…”

Grayson’s long eyes narrowed. He slowly stroked his chin while keeping his gaze fixed on Dane’s face.

“This sounds interesting.”

A golden glint flickered and vanished in his deep purple eyes. It seemed he had suppressed his anger toward Dane for a moment, but he couldn’t hide the thickened scent of pheromones.

A heavy, subtle scent permeated the air. A deep, intense, alpha-prime pheromone. The moment that scent spread, Dane’s expression changed subtly. However, he wrinkled his nose for a second, shrugged his shoulders lightly, and turned back to Wilkins.

Afterward, Wilkins and the rest headed to the stamina testing site they had prepared in advance.

“Haa…”

Dane, following slowly at the very back, let out a deep sigh and thought, …This is a pain.

He felt a strong temptation to just claim he had a stomachache from bad yogurt he ate yesterday and skip out on this, but Wilkins turned back as if he had pierced right through that thought. Wilkins pointed his index and middle fingers at his own eyes, then pointed at Dane, doing this twice before turning his head again. In the end, Dane had no choice but to trudge along.

∞ ∞ ∞

A few hours ago.

In one corner of the exercise room, the sound of heavy iron clanking echoed rhythmically.

Lying on a bench, Dane was slowly lifting dumbbells. Veins stood out on his long forearms, and the muscles in his shoulders and back contracted tautly. Sweat was trickling down his forehead, but he continued his repetitive motions in silence with an expressionless face.

While he was focused like that, Dane heard the absurd plot and scowled in total disbelief. Letting out a huff, he rubbed the back of his head and protested as if he were dumbfounded.

“Fine, all that’s fine, but why am I the one doing it?”

Dane crossed his arms, his eyebrows twitching in annoyance. The air of utter irritation was clear in his voice. But as soon as that question ended, Ezra snatched the words up as if he had been waiting.

“Because you’re the best.”

Then, another guy quickly chimed in.

“We’ve already gone to the trouble of making this plan, we can’t let it end anticlimactically. So you have to be the one to do it.”

“Just watching that guy roll around on the ground isn’t enough to satisfy me.”

“Exactly, we have to make him a laughingstock. That’s the only way that arrogant guy’s ego will be bruised.”

“It has to be you, Dane.”

“Yeah, out of all of us, you have the best skills and your physique can actually go toe-to-toe with him.”

They drove the mood in the direction they wanted in an instant.

How on earth was he supposed to accept such an absurd situation?

With the opinions coming out unanimously as if everything had already been decided, Dane looked at Wilkins in disbelief. When he spread his arms with his palms up, as if asking what on earth this was, Wilkins spoke in a truly grave voice.

“I’m of the same opinion, Dane. Since things have turned out this way, I’d like you to uphold our honor.”

And he added, casually, “Actually, I’m the one who came up with this idea.” Dane immediately pulled back, wearing a disgusted expression, as if he didn’t even want to be touched.