Tempt the Ex (Tempt 2.5)

I look at the driver and give him John’s address. “We should be there soon, and we can rinse your eyes out.”

“You tried to blind me,” he says as he coughs again. We pull up in front of his house, and I take out my credit card and swipe it in the reader to pay for the cab ride.

I get out and hold his hand as I guide him up the stairs into his house. I walk to the kitchen, then turn on the water and guide his hands under the faucet. He bends his head, cupping his hands, and splashes water on his eyes. I leave him, running upstairs to the linen closet where I grab a towel and bring it downstairs. He is still at the sink, opening and closing his eyes.

“I see blurry,” he says as grabs the towel and puts it against his eyes. “Even my lungs burn,” he says as he wets the towel again and puts it back on his eyes. He does that for what seems like forever. At this point, my shoes are off as I watch him wash the pepper spray out of his eyes. He turns to me, one eye covered by the towel and one eye squinting open. “Since when do you carry pepper spray?”

I roll my eyes at him, thinking this really isn’t my fault. “Since yesterday,” I answer him as he takes the towel and switches eyes. “Why were you sneaking up on me?”

He looks at me, glaring through his one eye. “I wasn’t sneaking up on you. I was making sure you were okay. You were walking down a dark road semi-naked. Where the fuck was your date anyway?” His words come out harsh, the last part causing me to snap my head back.

“What the hell are you talking about, date?” I move to him, pushing my finger into his chest. “I’m not the one dating and moving on.”

He swats my hand away from his chest. “I wasn’t the one who showed up with a date now, am I?”

I cross my hands over my chest. “We really need to talk,” I say to him before the door opens, and Noah and Austin walk through the door.

Chapter 9

John

My fucking eyes burn so much. I had no idea that grabbing her arm would unleash the beast. She swung around like a ninja warrior pointing and aiming even before I knew what was going on, and then the burning started. I wet the towel again and bring it back to my eye as the door opens, and Noah and Austin walk in.

“What the fuck?” I hear Dani next to me as she takes in Noah’s jacket that is now a brown color due to his face. “What happened to you?” she asks Noah, and he looks at me with his eyebrows pinched together.

“What the fuck happened to you?” Noah asks me, ignoring Dani’s question as he points at me, holding the wet towel on my eye.

“She sprayed me with pepper spray,” I say as I point at Dani.

She throws her hands up in the air. “I thought he was a stalker.”

Austin and Noah both throw their heads back and laugh. “It isn’t funny. I still can’t see out of my left eye!” I say as I press the towel harder on my eye. “It’s all your fucking fault.” I point at both of them as Austin stands there with his hands in his pockets, rolling his eyes.

“How is you being pepper sprayed our fault?” Austin asks as he points at him and Noah, who’s nodding.

“If it weren’t for you two clowns, I would have just called her,” I say, pointing at Dani as her head goes back and forth between us. “I would have laid my cards on the table.” I get up, wetting the towel again as I blink and am finally able to see. I wet the towel, placing it on my other eye. “But did I listen to my gut? No,” I say, sitting back down. “Instead, I worked on the ‘getting the ex back’ plan.”

“The what?” Dani asks, and I’m about to answer her when Noah pipes in.

“It was a list to make sure you would take him back after you broke his dick.” He points at her, and she looks at me in shock.

I roll my eyes. “She didn’t break my dick.”

“You can’t even say that with a straight face.” Noah points at me. “His dick doesn’t even get hard when he watches porn. You”—he turns and points at Dani now—“you broke his dick with your voodoo vagina.”

“My what?” Dani asks as confusion takes over her face.

“You broke up with him, and now you’re out dating all these other people while this punk sits home waiting for his dick to work,” Noah says and stops when she slaps her hand on the table.