Desire Me If You Can Chapter 37

Meanwhile, the house continued to crumble away. Just as it seemed there was no time left, firefighters placed a ladder where Dane was standing.

Even in that moment, Dane handed the dog over first. Only after another firefighter received the dog from below did he finally step down, one rung at a time. The moment his feet touched the ground, the building collapsed completely. Simultaneously, the firefighters rushed toward him with shouts of relief.

“Dane, Daaaane!”

“You idiot, do you have any idea how worried we were? You and your stunts!”

“I knew you’d pull it off! I knew it!”

“Charlie, Charliiie…! Sob…”

“Alright, alright, Dane. You rest now. We’ll handle the rest.”

“Someone get Dane some oxygen, hurry!”

Seeing them patting his shoulders, embracing him, and pouring out words of worry and relief, Dane simply said:

“Does anyone have any water?”

The indifferent request, delivered in a tired voice as he swept back his disheveled hair, led everyone to scramble to offer him their water bottles.

∞ ∞ ∞

Only after gulping down fresh oxygen and rehydrating enough did Dane feel like he had regained his senses. By then, the fire was almost entirely extinguished, and the firefighters were milling about, handling the remaining tasks.

It was then that he met someone’s gaze. As Dane turned his head, his eyes locked directly with Grayson’s. After watching him for a moment, Dane finished the bottled water, set the empty container down, and spoke first.

“What? You have something to say?”

There was no provocation in his question. The exhausted tone, as if asking just because he was bothered, was likely sincere. He had been hovering between life and death just moments ago.

Grayson, who had been watching Dane without a word, let a faint smile touch his lips. Is now the time to be smiling? Dane wondered momentarily but didn’t bother to overthink it. He waited silently for an answer, and Grayson spoke slowly.

“Aren’t you going to tell me that I don’t fit this job, or that I should try doing something else?”

These were the words Grayson had been hearing until just moments ago. Of course, it wasn’t the first time he’d heard such criticism or moralizing. Words like, You’re a guy who does whatever he wants without considering anyone else’s position, you’re not someone who belongs here, you and this work don’t match. And here, there was one more thing added to the list:

It’s absurd for someone like you to be a firefighter who works with a sense of mission.

Grayson waited, assuming this guy would say the same. Is it my turn to listen to some high-and-mighty moral lecture? he thought.

“Why would I?”

Grayson faltered at the indifferent reply. As Grayson stared at him without a single movement, Dane continued in the same tired voice:

“It’s your life. It’s your choice how you live it.”

After saying that, Dane found a new bottle of water, opened the cap, and guzzled it down. Grayson just watched him with stunned eyes.

…What is this? What is this guy?

It is said that when the platypus was first discovered, no one in the world believed the creature existed. Right now, Grayson was experiencing the feeling of being the first person to discover a platypus. What must that man have thought when he first saw that absurd beast? He must have felt exactly as I do right now.

What on earth is that guy?

Grayson looked at Dane with a confused expression. But Dane, acting as if he had no interest in anyone else, just kept drinking water with his tired face, sitting on the sidewalk in front of a house that hadn’t caught fire.

Naomi Parker, shining with an Oscar for Best Actress, was memorizing a new movie script while holding her precious puppy. When she put a biscuit in her mouth and picked up her freshly brewed coffee, the phone rang unexpectedly. Surprised by the late-night call, she checked the number and immediately brightened. It was an actor she’d been close with since her debut.

“Yeah, it’s me. What’s up? Of course, absolutely. Why? What is it?”

Naomi, who had answered the phone gladly, was nodding and saying “uh-huh, yeah, yeah,” when she was suddenly shocked.

“What?”

She stood up so abruptly that the script on her lap fell to the floor, but she didn’t care. The news she had heard was that shocking. Still standing while clutching her puppy—unlike her script—to her chest, Naomi continued the call.

“Grayson Miller became a firefighter? What are you talking about?”

I don’t know either. I have no idea what happened.

A perplexed voice continued on the other end.

I saw it by accident, but Grayson Miller was wearing a firefighter’s suit! I checked it several times; I’m 99 percent sure, but I called you because I couldn’t believe it. You’re close with Grayson Miller, aren’t you?

“Very close,” Naomi said, gritting her teeth with a smile.

“So close that I’d love to attend his funeral.”

Is that so? Anyway… check it out yourself. The search term is…

The friend, unaware of Naomi’s deep resentment, told her how to search. As soon as she hung up, Naomi opened YouTube and searched just as she was told. The video was about a fire that had happened in a certain village. It showed numerous firefighters busily moving around, filming several burning houses. Except for one man.

“My god! It’s true?”

Naomi shouted without realizing it and hurriedly searched for the screen to pause it. It was the same no matter how many times she watched it. There couldn’t possibly be another person in the world with this physique and this face.

Oh my god, a firefighter? This man?

She couldn’t believe her eyes. Of all the unlikely combinations, Grayson Miller and a firefighter?

“Oh my god, my goodness, oh my god.”

Repeating only exclamations, she watched the screen, looked up, and then looked back at the screen again. She smoothed her racing heart and finally gathered her thoughts. There was only one reason this man would do something so out of character.

To find that person of destiny.

“People really don’t change, do they?”

Naomi couldn’t help but laugh because it was so absurd. Disgusting bastard. She cursed Grayson in her mind. She could never forget the insult he had dealt her.

Naomi had first gotten to know Grayson during the time she was under contract with his friend, Keith. Keith Pittman was also a ‘Peak Alpha,’ and he was single at the time, swapping partners periodically to drain his pheromones. That was when Naomi had entered into a new contract with him.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. Or rather, while the duration was much longer than his other partners, the actual work was rare. After a few times at the beginning, Keith didn’t seek her out, and the days just drifted by. On the surface, she was Keith’s pheromone partner, but in reality, she did almost nothing.

In the midst of that, Naomi got to know Grayson, Keith’s friend, and naturally, they slept together. She herself boasted of a colorful history with men, so she never hesitated to sleep with someone if she liked them, and in that regard, one could say she and Grayson were on the same page.