RM , A Backstage Romance Book 2 In The Series

17 the air that sizzled

Rose could have sworn she literally saw Rms pupils dilate with desire.. ignoring the way her own body reacted to this she quickly busied herself . Distraction was definitely the way forward...for both if them . She cleared her throat and jumped up.. "shall I make us some tea ? " she asked . Not waiting for a reply she walked over to a cupboard to pull out a pretty tea set in red .

Rm still hadn't spoken.. he had been mentally talking himself down. Quite literally much to his embarrassment , and had almost succeeded when Rose spoke. He'd watched her walk away , and his growing problem grew again as she bent over to retrieve the tea set and Rm had a full view of her arse. The material stretched tightly across her curves leaving nothing to the imagination.!

He shifted uncomfortably on his cushion and was grateful that the low table covered his lap. He kept his eyes down cast as Rose carried the tray back and placed it in front of him .

"I'm not doing the whole ceremony if that's ok " she said , Rm found his voice and said " thats fine , thank you "

Well this isn't awkward Rose thought to herself sarcastically. She busied her self boiling a kettle and filling the porcelain tea pot with the tea leaves Rm and brought and hot water . Once done she poured some golden liquid into the two waiting cups and invited Rm to have one .

" thank you " he said politely and took a sip of the hot liquid.

They both sat there in silence , avoiding each others eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Rose was scrambling her brains for something to say and Rm was literally dieing inside out of embarressment. He was sure she'd noticed his er.. reaction .. He'd been called eloquent before, he had a genius IQ , and he could converse with presidents yet he couldn't think of a single thing to say in that moment . He cleared his throat, thought about saying something, anything... then took another sip of his tea instead.

Rose couldn't help it , a little giggle escaped causing Rm to look up at her in disbelief . His eyes clearly said what !

Rose nearly spat her tea out swallowed and laughed some more " I'm sorry " she said between giggles , " I laugh when I'm nervous and well you got to admit we're acting very funny " she smiled .

Rm almost blushed and cleared his throat before speaking" you're very .." he struggled for the words to not sound rude. " outspoken " he said , still puzzled about how open and frank Rose was. Would it have not been more polite to ignore the awkwardness and carry on.. not address his embarressment .

Rose flapped her hands across the table.." this " she said pointing to the tea set and surroundings , " is usually a place of quiet contemplation , serene thoughts, or work plans and instead you're sitting there checking me out and I'm sitting here wishing you'd do more than look. "

Rm was gobsmacked , never before had he heard any one talk like she did .

Flustered and very unsure how to respond to that Rm just stared at her with a confused bewildered look. She couldn't help herself , teasing Rm came so naturally .. the giggles had her in stitches and tears were rolling down her face , she put her hand up in a sorry sort of way and tried really hard to control herself. She went to take a sip of her tea to try and stem the giggles but she took a gulp instead and started spluttering and coughing.

Worried Rm jumped up and patted her back, bringing his face very close to hers and said " are you OK? "

Taking big gulps of air , eyes streaming Rose calmed herself enough to stop coughing. As the need to cough receded Rose became aware of Rms hand on her back , he was crouched down and as she looked up their eyes met. Their face only inches apart ,thoughts flew out the window, time stood still , unspoken questions and answers were shared ..and then Rm seemed to come to his senses and sprung up with an ease that had she been thinking clearly Rose would have been jealous of.

He went back to his side of the table and paced , keeping his back to her .
Rose watched him and sighed , this chemistry between them was so obvious . Feeling sad and dejected she stood up. " I've made some notes for your tea set , I'll erm...just go and grab them " she finished hurriedly and left the room.
Rm took this moment to annalise and dissect everything that had happened in the last few minutes.."how had everything been going so well become so ..strained so quickly.? Well clearly this was his own fault , he was the one that had been awkward and .." he didn't want to even think the word but..." aroused. " he sighed and went and sat back on his cushion and poured himself some more tea , just for something to do and drank thirstily.

Once in her workshop Rose leant up against the wall and took a much needed breath.
' why did you tease him , she asked herself , you really are becoming quite cruel !' These words were harsh but true , how ever the truth was she hadn't given up on the idea of being with Rm , they were both physically attracted to each other, all she had to do was get Rm to be brave enough to act apon it...'but what about respecting his boundaries her inner self questioned, she mentally told her self to be quiet and went and grabbed her note book.

She looked over at Rm as she walked back in , he was sat quietly back on the cushion, holding the little bowl of tea with two hands and was lost in thought. 'He looks...pained ' she thought.
This made her feel guilty , for laughing and teasing him.

She thought about apologising..again! But thought maybe he'd just prefer her to pretend nothing happened so she sat down and placed her sketch book in front of her on the desk.

She opened her mouth to say something but Rm got in first. Looking up abruptly he said " I'm really sorry but somethings just come up " he took a mental beat hoping she didn't see the double meaning in his words and continued " I have to go. " He put his cup down and stood up , did a hasty little bow and said " I'll be in touch , sorry again " and before Rose could even open her mouth he'd gone .