Desire Me If You Can [Novel] - Chapter 58

Diane, seemingly about to grab the collar of the person in front of him, made Andre shrink back into himself in an instant.
“No, well… it’s been a while… and… I didn’t think that guy was looking for anything… so…”
His excuses sputtered out, but by now, the team’s attention had already shifted elsewhere. “Why the hell is Miller interested in Dane?”
“I’ve been uneasy since the moment we went out for lunch. Why didn’t anyone stop it?”
“How could we stop that? It was too obvious!”
“Yeah, and what’s the big deal about one time? It’s not like they went out alone. There was someone else with them…”
“Dane probably had his own hidden agenda, so he wouldn’t have said anything risky. Besides, there’s no need to bring up that incident, right? That’s old news.”
“So why suddenly is that guy so curious about Dane?”
“Did something suspicious come up earlier?”
“Suddenly?”
The doubts returned to square one. They exchanged serious looks, but none of them spoke a word.
Grayson stood alone in the empty gym, deep in thought. He stared at one side, then brushed his hair back, thoughtfully stroking his chin. He stood there for quite a while like that.
Maybe I should go with that approach.
To get the answer he wanted, this was the simplest and most certain method Grayson could employ. Now, all that was left was to pick the right person.
With a soft click, the door opened, and Grayson lifted his head. As soon as their eyes met, the other person froze in surprise.
Yeah, exactly like that guy.
Grayson smiled broadly and spoke.
“I need to talk to you. Do you have a moment?”
The man blinked, looking around. But it was only him and Grayson in the room. Hesitant, he pointed at himself with a finger, and Grayson nodded.
“Yeah, you and me.”
After deliberately pointing at him with his finger, Grayson tilted his  head and smiled.
“I’m counting on you.”
With these words, no one could resist. Sure enough, the man, still tense and wary, hesitated for a moment before eventually nodding in agreement.
What the hell? This guy.
Ezra, feeling his heart race with unease, stole a glance at Grayson sitting across from him. It was a mistake to have come back to the gym. He had left something important and hesitated before returning, only to end up face to face with Grayson, just the two of them.
He hadn’t expected to be left alone there.
Giving himself a mental pass, Ezra took a sip from his beer. The absurd situation had led him to accept a ridiculous offer. Who would say they were in their right mind drinking beer alone with Grayson Miller?
“I’ll just have one beer with him. Once I drink this, I’ll leave,” Ezra reassured himself. That was the best he could do.
As he tilted his head and gulped down the beer, Grayson watched him silently across the table. Having emptied half his beer in one go, Ezra slammed the bottle down with a thud and stared directly at Grayson.
“So, what did you want to talk about?”
His speech was already starting to slur a bit, which was no surprise, given how quickly he’d drank. Grayson narrowed his eyes and thought to himself. After all, he’s not an extreme alpha who can’t be affected by alcohol or drugs.
Concealing any disdain or cynicism for the man across from him, Grayson put on a bitter expression and spoke. “I need some help.”
“What’s that?”
Ezra leaned in, saying the word louder, seemingly trying to look threatening. But to Grayson, he just looked like a meerkat. The man, who seemed so insignificant that one nudge would send him flying, was facing Grayson. He pretended to be troubled as he spoke.
“You guys seem to be keeping your distance from me, and I was wondering if it’s because of Dane Striker.”
Grayson deliberately paused his speech to gauge the reaction. As expected, Ezra froze, taken aback.
“D-Dane? Why? What does he have to do with it? Why do you think that?”
“Because…”
As Ezra stammered, Grayson slowly dragged out his words, then fell silent. Ezra, with his face tightly tensed, held his breath, waiting for the next part, his facial expression clearly shouting, “Say it already!”
Grayson let out a sigh, and after a painfully slow pause, just before Ezra would have pushed him further, he spoke.
“I was wondering if you guys are keeping your distance because I made a fool of myself in front of him…”
Ezra, who had been holding his breath, suddenly exhaled sharply. The words came afterward.
“…What?”
Ezra looked at him with a dumbfounded face, and Grayson met his gaze silently, a bitter smile on his lips.
By the time evening rolled around, the place was packed. The noisy clamor of voices mixed, with people shouting at times, but at their table, everything was eerily quiet. Ezra blinked rapidly, as if trying to process what he had just heard.
“So, uh, you’re saying…”
He finally started speaking, but couldn’t think of what to say next. He waved his hand in frustration, trying to buy time, before he asked, face contorted.
“You made a fool of yourself? What does that even mean? When? How?”
Wait, was he talking about the time he passed out?
The thought suddenly hit Ezra, making him tense again. He felt like everything had come full circle, and was about to mumble an excuse to leave when Grayson spoke.
“I went to open a door thinking it was the bathroom, but Dane was inside. I should’ve just walked out, but when I turned, I hit my head on the door and passed out.”
It was indeed the same incident he was referring to. However, the details were different from what Ezra had been told.
“You hit your head on the door? You? Alone?”
Grayson nodded casually. Seeing this, Ezra took a swig of beer instead of swallowing his saliva and stared back at him.
“So, when did this happen?”
That was an important question, but Grayson answered nonchalantly.
“The day of my welcome party, at that bar.”
Ezra blinked, confused. How did this happen? He’d thought Dane knocked him out cold.
…But did he?
Then it dawned on him. Maybe everything we assumed was wrong? Dane had said that the guy passed out on his own. So this matched exactly what Grayson was saying.
Now realizing this, Ezra raised his gaze and cautiously asked Grayson, whose expression was already halfway amused.
“So, wait… you really passed out by hitting your head alone? Really?”
Grayson nodded again, adding, a bit self-deprecatingly.
“I’m always doing stuff like that because of my height. Ridiculous, right? I guess I’m a bit of a fool.”
Ezra looked at his expression and silently counted in his head. At most, 5 seconds. After that, the result he was hoping for would come.
Grayson had been in this situation many times before. No matter how strong the suspicion or hostility toward extreme alphas, this method always worked.
Showing a weakness.
The bigger the weakness, the better. Grayson adjusted its size according to the person, always getting what he wanted. Sometimes it was material; sometimes it was something invisible. He’d never failed, and this time was no different. As he saw Ezra’s face brighten, Grayson quietly smiled to himself….3, 2, 1.
“Aha, ha ha ha, I see now! Ha ha!”
Ezra laughed loudly and slapped the table. Grayson could easily tell that the man had let his guard down.
“No, it’s a common mistake. I peed in front of my house once, and you wouldn’t believe how angry my wife was! She didn’t talk to me for a month because I peed in the garden she cared for.”
“Yeah, that must’ve been embarrassing.”
“Don’t even get me started, it was torture…”
Grayson responded, and Ezra, cheery again, rambled on. Grayson listened, smiling, then muttered under his
breath.
“You were really there, huh.”