Desire Me If You Can Novel - Chapter 125

“…Uh?”

A faint acrid smell reached him. The familiar scent, he realized a moment later, was the smell of his usual brand of cigarette. Slowly lifting his eyelids in his drowsy state, he saw a man sitting right beside him.

Dane…?

Grayson blinked his half-open eyes a couple of times. Was this a dream? …Or reality?

He needed to wake up and check, but he simply couldn’t shake off the sleep. He just blinked in a haze, and Dane, noticing the movement, turned his head. Their eyes met, and seeing Grayson’s vacant, sleep-drugged face, Dane smiled faintly.

“Sleep well, pretty thing?”

It’s a dream.

The moment he heard that voice, Grayson was certain. There was no way Dane would smile at him and speak in such an affectionate voice.

It’s a happy dream…

Grayson soon closed his eyes. He didn’t want to wake up. As his consciousness drifted away again, his hand, which had been limp, fumbled across the mattress as if it had a will of its own, then climbed onto Dane’s body. Its purpose was obvious. He smiled sheepishly as he once again grasped the chest he hadn’t let go of throughout the rut.

At the hand kneading his chest even in his sleep, Dane let out a gasp of disbelief. He bent his fingers as if to knock on Grayson’s head, but stopped his hand in mid-air and looked down at Grayson. Just then, Grayson’s ear twitched briefly back and forth. Dane kept his hand still for a while, but eventually lowered it. And Grayson plunged into a deep, unconscious sleep again.

“What? Is that really true?”

Coy raised his voice in surprise at the unexpected report. An familiar voice continued to stream from the other end of the cell phone. Coy held his breath, listening to her words, occasionally replying with “That’s right,” or “I see…” When the story ended, Coy let out a brief sigh and nodded.

“Yes, I understand. Thank you for telling me, yes…”

After exchanging some perfunctory farewells, he ended the call. A sudden silence descended. Coy paced around the reception room with a serious expression. Outside the window, the Eiffel Tower was visible. He had followed Ashley, who was in France for official business, and was here as well. Receiving the report of what had happened while he was away from the States, Coy’s mind became complicated.

He was slowly walking from one end of the reception room to the other, his face full of worry, when he suddenly heard the sound of the door lock disengaging. He stopped walking and turned his head, and Ashley opened the door and entered.

“Ash!”

Coy smiled brightly, as if he had been waiting, and approached him. Naturally, after hugging each other tightly and sharing a kiss, Ashley took a deep breath. He was inhaling Coy’s pheromone scent. Coy waited for the moment to pass, standing still, before speaking.

“Did your work go well?”

“More or less.”

Ashley answered distractedly, burying his nose in Coy’s neck. Coy gave a wry smile and gently chastised him.

“What do you mean, ‘more or less’?”

“I can afford to be brief, since I’m only dealing with pointless talk.”

Ashley spoke in the same uninterested tone. In the end, Coy could only smile and shake his head. Then, as Ashley rubbed his neck with his nose, Coy giggled, shrugging his shoulder.

“That tickles, stop it.”

Coy, a smile still on his face, took Ashley’s face in his hands and kissed his lips. Ashley smiled too, lightly nibbling his nose. Since Ashley showed no sign of letting go of his waist, Coy cautiously brought up the matter while remaining in the embrace.

“Look, there’s something I need to talk about.”

“Say it.”

Usually, when he said this, unwelcome news followed. Ashley waited for Coy’s words without revealing his feelings. Coy hesitated for a moment, then made up his mind and spoke.

“Bernice called me.”

“Bernice.”

“Yes.”

Coy nodded as if to confirm to Ashley, who had merely repeated the name.

Bernice was the secretary of Ashley’s father, Dominique Miller. She used to report on Ashley’s status or handle related matters under Dominique’s orders, but after Dominique’s death, she had been working as Ashley’s personal secretary until now. Currently, she was overseeing the overall management of the children, so a call from her meant that something was wrong with the children.

To Ashley, who silently waited for his next words, Coy continued.

“It was about Grayson…”

Ashley didn’t rush him as he hesitated, despite the numerous ominous thoughts already running through his mind. He waited patiently, and Coy finally seemed to make up his mind and confessed.

“Grayson went to a party.”

Ashley frowned for the first time. What was the problem with that? If anything, wasn’t it late? How long ago had he told him to drain his pheromones? As if sensing the question in Ashley’s mind, Coy continued.

“He drained his pheromones with an injection.”

He felt the arm wrapped around Coy twitch. Coy continued with a worried expression.

“Bernice said that even though Grayson went to the party, he only used an injection to drain his pheromones and came right back. She followed him immediately and confirmed that he got home safely, but she said he seemed to have gone into rut. He hasn’t come out of the house for three days since then… Ah, Bernice called the fire department. She said he was taking a few days off due to rut aftereffects.”

Ashley didn’t react at all until Coy finished his explanation. He simply stared intently at Coy, without even blinking.

“…Why?”

He finally moved his lips after a long silence. Then, Ashley continued with a look of utter incomprehension on his face.

“Why would he do something like that?”

Coy took a deep breath before answering. And he presented the conclusion he had reached with Bernice.

“Because he’s fallen for someone for real.”

Ashley did not react immediately. He stared at Coy motionlessly for a while, then let out a short exhale. “Ha.”

“That kid, the one who tried to mate with a dog when Chase rejected him, is acting like that?”

Coy quickly provided the reason for the invariably cynical remark.

“Grayson is starting to understand what it means to love someone.”

Ashley’s face was filled with disbelief. Coy continued to desperately persuade him.

“You know, Ash. Grayson has a broken emotional apparatus. But we don’t know if Grayson genuinely can’t feel or if he feels it but just doesn’t realize it. If Grayson simply hasn’t realized it yet… then this time, he really will change.”

“Talk sense.”

“Ash, please listen to me.”

Coy pleaded, gripping Ashley’s arm.

“He’s repeating the actions you took when you were young. Don’t you remember? The time you took an injection to drain your pheromones after we broke up.”

Ashley fell silent. Encouraged by his silence, Coy enthusiastically continued.

“We never told him about it, yet he’s doing it on his own. Isn’t that amazing? What do you think that means?”

He couldn’t hide his joy and raised his voice.

“Grayson is feeling emotions for Dane!”

“Coy, calm down.”

Ashley stopped him with a cold voice.

“I know Grayson better. I went to every hospital and met every doctor with that boy. Grayson doesn’t have emotions, he simply doesn’t possess them!”

“We could be wrong!”

Ashley’s eyes widened in shock at Coy’s outcry. Coy is contradicting me. Seeing his stunned, blank face, Coy continued urgently.

“Please, Ash. Think about it again. I know you did your best. But we might have been trying in the wrong direction.”

Soon, his eyes moistened. Coy asked, his eyes welling up with tears.

“Admitting we were wrong is a million times better than concluding that our child is broken.”

Ashley was silent for a while. He simply stared at Coy’s contorted face, which was desperately holding back tears.

“…Ha.”

After a long time, he sighed. Ashley suddenly pulled Coy into an embrace, who was awaiting his answer, and whispered in a low voice.

“I can’t lose you.”