Much as Ronda's kiss had lingered on Seth's lips, it had also lingered in his mind. It was obvious that had been her intention, and from her point of view it had worked like a charm because that night as he lay in bed in his hotel room he could think of nothing else apart from the feeling of Ronda's lips against his own and the small, satisfied purring sound that she had let out either involuntarily or as a further way to tease him. He wanted more of that, a lot more.
Great though his desire was for Ronda, by the time he arrived at the arena for the Smackdown taping the next day he had decided that she was not the only one who could play little mind games. It had been obvious not only from the kiss, but also from the look in her gorgeous blue eyes before she had turned away from him to get into her car that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her. Yet she had decided to tease him. What she obviously wanted was for him to come chasing after her tonight and make the next move, probably to ask her on another date. Instead, he had a game of his own to leave Ronda doing the thinking. It was very simple; his plan was to do nothing.
He was not booked to wrestle on the show, which meant that the storyline with Ronda would not progress until Monday night's Raw episode. The only reason he had showed up for the taping at all was because both Dean and Roman were wrestling, therefore he intended to hang with them in the locker room that they all shared and watch the show from there. There would also presumably be the pleasant distraction of watching Ronda referee a match or two, but as far as she was concerned, what mattered was that he would be in the locker room and she would not see or hear from him all night. The ball would well and truly be back in her court.
"Here he is," Dean greeted Seth when he walked into the locker room that had been assigned to the former Shield members.
"'Sup bro?" Seth greeted as the two men bumped fists. Seth sat down on a steel chair next to Dean's own. There was no sign of Roman, but Dean was watching the pre-show warm up match that was taking place out in the ring on a monitor.
"There's something about that woman, almost makes me jealous of you," Dean said with a smile. It was only then that the camera angle changed and Seth saw that Ronda was refereeing the match between Zack Ryder and R-Truth which was in progress. "So, how did it go last night?" Dean asked eagerly.
"Good," Seth admitted, playing it cool. "Nice food, better company."
"I don't want to hear about the food, dickhead. Did you score or not?"
Seth laughed sarcastically. "You know, sometimes I wonder what Renee sees in you, man."
Dean's response was a devilish grin of his own. "I don't talk like that around Renee, do I? Come on then, details!"
"We had a good night, like I said. I walked Ronda back to her car and we kissed. Then I went back to the hotel."
Dean gestured at the monitor. "You kissed her and then left it at that? I'd have gotten a blow job at the very least."
"Come on dude," Seth sighed, a hint of irritation in his voice now at his friend's attitude.
Dean punched him on the shoulder and laughed. "Lighten up, you tool. I'm playing with you. I'm glad that you had a good night, and that you kissed each other. You're going to see her again?"
"I hope so," Seth nodded, smiling now that he realised Dean had successfully suckered him into the ribbing. "The way she kissed me goodnight, she let it linger just for that extra second to leave me wanting more. She wanted to play with me a little, so I'm playing right back. I'm staying in here all night and avoiding her until Monday."
"Good idea," Dean decided. "Let her stew for a few days, then ask her out again Monday."
"Exactly what I was going to do," Seth agreed. "Hey, I was thinking the whole night last night that I'd heard her name somewhere before. She was at the two thousand eight Olympics and got bronze for judo. The girl is badass, man."
Dean laughed and gestured to the monitor once more. "You don't have to tell me that, it's obvious by looking at her. If this thing takes off with the two of you and you fuck her around, I won't have to kick your ass because she'll do it herself. Anyway, you've learned from last time right?"
Seth's eyes closed briefly at the memory of how his last relationship had ended. "Yes. The next relationship I get into, I'm going to take it seriously. No more of that cheating bullshit."
"Hey, Hunter. You wanted to see me?" Seth asked as he walked into the boss's office backstage prior to Monday Night Raw. It was never a pleasant feeling to be summoned to see one of the bosses, whether it was Vince, Hunter or even Stephanie, they could all verbally tear you a new asshole when they wanted to. But tonight, Seth could imagine no reason why he might be in trouble, so the reason for the summons had to be something else.
"Just a quick one, Seth," Hunter smiled. "I wanted to say that the finish to your match last week went over really well. I spoke to Ronda earlier and she said that it was your vision, your idea, so good job. I'm not sure how this angle is going to end as yet, but as for tonight, as you've seen in the script, Randy is going to goad you into putting your spot in the triple threat at the Rumble on the line. If he beats you, you lose your spot in the match, but if you beat him, he'll leave WWE for good."
"Yeah, I read that," Seth confirmed, sounding a little puzzled by the idea. "Obviously, with the angle being that Ronda keeps 'helping' me to win, I'm going over. Kind of strange bringing Randy back for a couple of weeks, and then he's gone again, isn't it?"
"He's still got filming to do," Hunter clarified. "And anyway, it will make people go into the match thinking 'There's no way Orton will lose, he just came back'," Paul grinned, making speech signs in the air. "Vince keeps getting on my ass about predictable writing and telling me that it's costing us network subscriptions and stuff, so we're stepping up our game in that regard. Seth, I need to get on, so get together with Orton and Rousey and work out a finish, okay?"
"You got it." Seth headed out of the boss's office to begin his search for Ronda and Randy Orton. As he walked along the hallway, his mind drifted to what he was going to say to Ronda when he spoke to her, concerning another date rather than the storyline. He didn't get very far, as he only made it to the next hallway before seeing Ronda striding towards him wearing her referee attire. Everything about her, even the way she walked, looked so powerful. It was already driving him crazy. This girl was something else, even compared to the rest of the divas, some of whom were both powerful and beautiful themselves.
"Hey Ronda," he greeted her with a big smile. Again, he decided to play it cool and maybe push her buttons a little more. "Have you seen Randy Orton? We need to work on our match."
Ronda could not figure out if this guy was serious or not. What kind of guy asked a girl out on a date, acted like a real gentleman, including not pushing his luck at the end of the night, kissed the girl goodnight with a look of longing in his eyes, and then ignored the girl for a week afterwards, as if pretending that nothing had happened? The truth was that she had no idea, but she was going to find out. At the same time, Seth Rollins was going to find out that she did not like to be ignored by a man who she had been on a date with, especially if they had kissed her.
"Hey, Seth," she greeted him with a smile of her own. It was a disappointment in a way for Seth to see Ronda smile so warmly. The smile was beautiful, but he had been probing for a reaction and had not gotten one. Had she really not been thinking about the date all week, as he had?
"I do know where Randy is actually," Ronda continued as the pair started to walk along the hallway side by side. They passed several closed doors before Ronda stopped, gestured at a door and announced, "He's right in here."
"After you," Seth gestured himself, now quickly rethinking his attitude and gamesmanship, and thinking that gentleman mode might be a better idea after all. Ronda walked inside the locker room and Seth followed. As he entered and closed the door behind him, he did not have time to take in that Randy Orton was nowhere to be seen, or that it was in fact a women's locker room, because Ronda shoved him back against the door and glared up at him.
"What the hell, Seth, huh?" she demanded. "What's your game? You want to just forget Monday night?"
Ronda was so close to Seth and the combination of the aggressive way that she had pushed him against the door left him feeling short of breath. His plan had worked better than he could possibly have hoped for, and Ronda had just served him up a juicy fast ball right over the middle of the plate for him to put away for a home run. In fact, he could do so with only one word.
"No," he said, actually sounding as breathless as he felt. With that, he pulled Ronda to him and kissed her passionately. There was no guarantee that the kiss was what Ronda had wanted or expected, but she moaned in surprise and then allowed his tongue to access her mouth. The taste of her filled his mouth and it was like drinking some kind of magic potion, a potion that made him instantly desperate for sex.
The kiss had taken Ronda by surprise, but it had certainly answered the multitude of questions that had been running through her mind for days. Seth wanted her as badly as she wanted him. Usually, she was not the kind of woman to rush into sex after meeting a guy, but this time she felt differently. She wanted Seth so badly. The smell and taste of him, as well as the feel of his beard against her face, was already causing her to burn with desire for him. "Seth," she gasped in between kisses, wrapping her hands around the back of his neck.
"You're beautiful, Ronda," Seth breathed. "Fuck, you drive me wild."
They shared another passionate kiss for a full minute before Ronda unlinked her hands and moved one of them down and into Seth's leather pants that he wore to the ring. This told her that she did not have much work to do, as once more Seth locked his mouth over her own in another kiss. This time he was the one to moan in pleasure into her mouth.
Someone tried to push the locker room door open that moment, the door handle lowering and raising several times. The door was unlocked, but the fact that Seth was pressed up against it had prevented whoever was there from being able to move it at all.
"Ronda? Are you okay? The door won't open." The voice belonged to Brie Bella.
"Damn it," Ronda whispered as she backed away from Seth. "I'm sharing with the Bellas. Open the door and tell her that we're working on the match."
"We'll continue this later," Seth said quietly as he straightened his T-shirt.
"Yes. Yes we will," Ronda confirmed, her eyes full of lust.
Seth opened the door and allowed Brie to enter. No one in the room found Seth's explanation for the seemingly locked door convincing in the least, but Brie's smile to Ronda let her know that the secret was safe with her. As quickly as they could, Seth and Ronda left the locker room and walked along the empty hallway, laughing like school children who had been caught skipping class.
Twenty five minutes later, the finish of the match was finalised, which meant that Seth had every reason to feel quite relaxed. There was nothing that he had to do for the next hour before going out on stage during the opening segment and interrupting Randy, who would then goad him into putting his spot in the WWE title match at the Royal Rumble on the line. However, Seth did not feel relaxed. The reason for his uneasiness was actually uneasiness that he had picked up on from someone else.
The first part of the finish of the match was going to be that J & J Security would interfere by distracting Randy when he was lining up an RKO. Ronda would then wind up standing outside of the ropes, on the ring apron, reprimanding J & J for their interference. Seth would be whipped into the ropes where she was standing, knocking her off the apron and into the padded barrier separating the fans from ringside. With the referee down, chaos would ensue, but none of the latter part of the match concerned Seth right now; what concerned him was Ronda's reaction when Orton had voiced his idea and mentioned that she would need to fall from the apron and hit the barrier.
Ronda had agreed to do the spot, but Seth had sensed something in her tone and manner that surprised him; nervousness maybe, or even fright. He had only met Ronda the previous week, but it was plain as day that she was not a woman to show fear easily. Certainly she was not the type to be scared of a simple fall from a ring apron. He realised that it must have been a very subtle sign that he had picked up on, because Randy appeared not to have noticed it.
With the discussion about the match complete, Orton announced that he was heading off to change into his ring gear, which left Seth and Ronda alone in the small meeting room. "You're not comfortable taking that fall from the ring are you?" Seth asked, getting right to the point, as was his customary style. His question was asked sensitively rather than as some kind of accusation of weakness on her part.
"What makes you say that?" Ronda asked evasively.
"The fact that I'm not an idiot," Seth said simply. "I saw how you reacted when Orton mentioned it. He didn't notice it, but I did. If you don't want to do something, you need to speak up. Honestly, though, there's nothing to worry about. There's literally no way you can get hurt taking a small fall like that." As Seth had been speaking he decided to add a further sentence and see what reaction it got. "I think we both know that."
The reaction that Seth got was not one that he had considered. "I'm fine doing it," Ronda said and hurriedly got up from her chair and made to leave, without looking him in the eye, effectively confirming the opposite to the words she had spoken.
Quickly, Seth also rose and spoke before Ronda made it to the door. "Your neck is still injured isn't it?"
Ronda stopped with her hand on the door handle and seemed to tense up.
"You shouldn't be out there if you're not fit to be," Seth said gently. "If you get hurt again it could be really..."
"My neck isn't injured," Ronda cut in although her voice was only just above a mumble. There was a noticeable pause before she spoke again, still with her back to him. "I'm fine. I'm doing the finish that we agreed on, so can we leave it at that?" She finally turned to face Seth, her expression telling him that she would rather be doing anything else in the world than having this conversation. "Please?" she added.
"Sure," Seth said softly, again surprised by her demeanour.
"Thank you. See you out there, I guess," Ronda said distractedly and quickly left the room.
The door clicked closed behind her, leaving Seth not really sure as to what had just happened between them. The impression he had was that as she had stood with her back to him she had been considering letting him in on some kind of personal aspect of her life, but had then shut down instead. It had been a very strange moment, but it had left him certain of one thing: there was more to Ronda's neck injury than she had told him or anyone else in the WWE. She had mentioned that she had passed fitness tests imposed on her by the company before they would commit to hiring her, so he came to the conclusion that her statement had been true; her neck was not injured, yet she was seriously afraid to take any kind of bump.
Yes, that's it, he thought, physically she's fine but mentally she's struggling. She's afraid that she will get hurt again. I need to try to help her with that somehow, but how?
There was now something for him to think about during the free hour that he had ahead of him, so he sat back down and put his mind to work.