When Clara decided to face me again, I actually felt nervous and grateful at the very same time. As she stepped into my dressing room, her heels were hitting the floor with some obvious apprehension.

I had done that.

I had made her feel that way.

Wanting to relax her right away, wanting to wipe away all of her uncertainties about me, I was inviting with my smile when I said that we could finish off the interview. Clara was just as nervous as me, so when she fumbled around for her dictaphone, I knew I had to apologise. Placing my hand gently on hers, that is what I did. "Before we do this, I need to apologise."

Clara blinked hard, her stunned lashes framing those enticing teal eyes of hers. "For what?" She had asked, just to be so beautifully polite.

I explained I had been a jerk, and she had tried to sweetly tell me that it was okay. But it wasn't okay. None of my behaviour was okay.

When she had brought her other hand down onto mine, that chemistry that always seemed to silently sizzle between us, was there again. I made some stupid joke about us having to agree to disagree about me being a total jerk, before I gave in to the overwhelming urge to kiss her. It was at this point, that Clara asked if I was okay. I knew she was trying to go where many other females had never been before.

I said I was. Because I really was okay. With her hand touching mine, I really was okay. Then from out of the blue, she asked me whether she had upset me at the studio. I was just starting to get Clara thinking that I wasn't a total jerk, so I wasn't about to admit that I was jealous of her and Cam. So I said that she hadn't upset me, keeping my pride very much in tact.

But Clara is intelligent. Intelligent enough to doubt what I had told her. With a small frown, she went on to say. "It's just that when me and Cameron came back into the studio, you looked at us strangely." That's when I felt hot all of a sudden, like the dressing room walls were closing in on me. This woman had me upside down and sideways about my feelings for her, now she wanted me to admit that I was jealous. No way in hell was I about to admit that. So I pulled my hand away, needing to distance myself from the unwanted question. I went on to explain to Clara that my mom had called, a call that was the reason why I had been so pissed back at the studio. No matter how much I didn't want to open up, the urge to lock lips with Clara Thorn had indeed got stronger and stronger. "Want to talk about it?" She sweetly then asked, causing such an inward conflict, that I honestly didn't know how to rightly respond.

"It's private, Clara." Defensively fell right out of my stupid mouth. Yeah, it was private, but I didn't want to be so guarded and private with her.

So now, here I am, stuck in this intolerable and awkward situation where I've hurt the one person who I never wanted to ever hurt. My need to guard Maci's drug addiction has intruded on my growing need for Clara.

Now, she's sitting here beside me, mumbling out all of the reasons why I shouldn't trust her, and I feel like a total dick again.

She's different...don't be the same. Is what I now tell myself.

And my conscience is right.

This woman is different.

I know she's a journalist. I know I probably shouldn't trust her. But watching her now, squirming in her seat as she tries to justify why I don't want to talk to her about my private life, only makes me want to tell her it all. Because I know that Clara feels more for me than she is letting on. I'm not just any old celebrity that she's interviewing here—I am more to her than that.

Just like she is more to me.

She's not yet another journalist trying to get all the juicy gossip on me. Clara has more integrity than that.

I see it.

I see it in her eyes and I felt it in her concerned touch.

So I grab her shoulders. I stop being the same old me. "It's not that I don't trust you, Clara. It's just my family life is my family life...I find it hard to talk to anyone about." Although I'm no longer desperately holding onto her shoulders, my fingers remain settled on them as I fight back the urge to kiss those pouty, perfect lips of hers. Sighing loudly, my eyes now look so deeply into her attentive spheres. "If only we had met at the beginning of my UK tour." I want Clara. I want to tell her everything. But I'm leaving tomorrow.

"That would have been really nice." She agrees, heavily sighing just as I had and looking back at me in such a forlorn way.

I just want to wrap myself around her and never let go. In her arms, I know that Clara will quieten the storms that my sister always creates. But time isn't on my side. Time is running out fast.

Am I insane?

Am I insane for wanting this woman?

Am I insane for wanting her now?

Removing my fingers from off her shoulders and clasping my hands together, I lean forward with my elbows perched on my knees.

This is torture.

Absolute torture.

My mom is just about holding it together back home.

Maci is a hopeless case back home.

And I'm here, badly wanting a British journalist.

Overwhelmed by all that's raging within me, I pathetically purge the confusion inside of me. "It's my sister...she's addicted to drugs." With my fists clenched into tight and tense balls, I continue purging. "Mom called earlier to tell me that Maci walked out of her rehab and has used again. She's a total mess."

Clara holds my arched back, wanting to genuinely comfort me. "I'm so sorry, Rhys." Are her kind and sympathetic words.

Many of us have a truth that we don't want others to know. And my truth, I have always kept closer than close. But with Clara's sweetness and kindness, I want to unburden all of my truth to her. "I'm so sick of her. I love her, but I'm sick of her." Her palms protectively now stroke my back, letting me know that she's still here and that she's still listening. "I honestly don't know what to do anymore. I don't even know whether I want to do anything anymore." I've been feeling so bad about my lack of caring about Maci. Every single time she has let me and my Mom down, the harder I find it to actually care about what happens next to her. My truth is ugly. It's uncaring and it's relentless. But it wants to reveal itself to Clara. "I've done all I can. She's on her own now." I say the words that I've been too ashamed to admit. Words that a brother should never say about his own sister. Now I've said them, now that they're free, I just break down in Clara's lap. My head falls into her warmth, and so do my tears.

This is me handing to Clara all of my painful truth. As I sob, she holds more of me. Using only her body, she willingly comforts me. It's been a long time since I last cried, but my tears are tears that have needed to be freed. In Clara's affectionate arms, I know that she'll hold tightly to both me and my truth. "I'm sorry." I mumble, no longer sobbing in her lap.

Clara reaches for me, wanting to reassure me once again with her tender touch and her soft British accent. "This won't go any further, I promise." I'm grateful for her sweet promise. But it's one that I already knew. I know that my secret will be safe with her. If Clara really wanted to, she could reveal my closely guarded secret to the entire world. With just one printed story, everyone would know about Maci. But I know that Clara isn't like that. She is someone that I know I can trust. In just two days, I trust her with the truth and I trust her with my heart. It's insane, I know. But it's how I feel. Wanting and needing to look at her, I keep gazing into the eyes of the only eyes that I ever want to stare this deeply into. "Why have you only come into my life now?" It's an honest question. One that I'm desperate to know the answer to.

Clara seems shy to answer. "Friends crop up in the unlikeliest of places, I suppose?"

Straightening my back, I shift in a better position in my seat beside her. "Friends?" I don't believe that that is all we are supposed to be. I don't believe that at all.

But Clara is afraid to tell me her true feelings. Instead, she uneasily says. "Yes, friends."

"Do you mean like you and Cameron?" The depth of my stare deepens, wanting her to give me so much more than what she is giving. I know she's holding back something, something that I need to know. "Clara? Are you and Cameron just friends?"

"Yes." With absolutely no hesitation, she quickly tells me what I wanted to hear—that she and Cam are nothing but friends.

"And what about me?" Yeah, what about me? She always seems to struggle to answer this question and this is the most important question of all. "Clara?" Pushing her, I desperately need to hear from her very own beautiful lips what she really feels for me.

Reluctantly, she mumbles. "Just friends." Yeah right, if me and Clara are only just friends, then I really must be losing my shit.

So I push a little more, refusing to believe that we're only ever going to be that. "Just friends?" I ask, scepticism plainly sat on my face. "I don't tell just anybody about my sister, Clara. There's a reason for me opening up to you." And that reason is...I want you. My mind quietly relays back to only me.

"I just walked in on you at a low ebb, that's all. I was here for you, when no one else was. As a friend, I couldn't just leave you like that." Ah, one cute excuse after another from the beautiful Clara Thorn is all I'm now getting.

I want to laugh out loud, such is my inner amusement. "My sister is an addict. Has been for nearly four years now. Few people know the truth about her, because that's how I like to keep it." Looking directly at Clara, I hold her nervy stare. "I don't know why, but since meeting you, you somehow make it all better. I have no damn clue of what is happening, but you make things better, Clara." There, at least one of us is able to be completely honest here.

For just a second, I actually think that Clara is going to wrap her arms around me, but that split second evaporates before my disappointed eyes. Instead, she lifts that gorgeous chin of hers and denies herself that opportunity. "That's so lovely for you to say that, it really is. As a friend, I am glad that I make you feel that way." She awkwardly now smiles. "I am also glad that you feel that you can talk to me. I can't imagine how you must feel about Maci. It must be incredibly hard for you and all of your family." More and more, she denies herself. "Just don't think that this is more than what it is, Rhys. You are carrying an awful lot of emotional stress on your shoulders and you obviously just needed to lighten the load...that's all this is."

Stuff this game playing shit! Whatever she's just about to say, I stop her from saying it by placing my finger on her lips. Clara can throw one excuse after another at me, I'm still not buying it. With so many thoughts inside my head, I try not to focus on any one of them. Instead, I focus on only Clara. Lifting my finger away from her sensuous mouth, I use it with all of my other fingers on that hand to stroke the hair of the woman who now has my desired and undivided attention. "I told you before that I wished we had met each other at the beginning of my tour, and I meant that. We could have spent so much more time together. Now, I feel like I've got to do everything in fast forward."

"Like what?" She quietly asks, the tone of her voice almost hopeful.

"This." Then I do what I've wanted to do for the longest of time. I kiss her. I kiss her lips in a slow and manipulative way. The manipulation is sexily light, only wanting to ignite the spark between us. I just want Clara to acknowledge what is happening. To embrace how it feels. When she goes to bed tonight and closes her eyes, I want her to remember this kiss. I want her to remember how my mouth feels against hers. And then I want her to ache for yet another one of my unexpected kisses.

Only, Clara wants to fight; fight against my kiss and us. "You can't kiss me, Rhys." Her voice is strong, but I know that her will has been weakened by our kiss.

"I just did." Is my reply, before chucking her one of my misbehaving smirks. "And I think your mouth kinda liked it, too." Yeah, that pouting mouth of hers, sure as hell liked that kiss.

Still, she stubbornly fights on. "It was a nice kiss, but you shouldn't have done it."

That misbehaving smirk of mine, ain't going nowhere. "A kiss can say what the heart sometimes can't." I confidently now tell her.

Clara blinks, trying to think quickly on her feet how is best to respond to what I've just said.

She wants me.

I know it.

It veils her teal eyes and stiffens her sexy body.

She's just too damn scared to admit it. I get that, I do. I suppose I've had just a little longer to wrap my head around the idea of there being an us. And there will be an us. Clara can fight against it and deny it all she damn well wants, this thing that we currently have going on...won't be going away. "It was a kiss that shouldn't have happened." Eventually and very defiantly comes tumbling out of her just kissed mouth.

For now, I let her think that she's won the war. "If that is what you really think, then I'm sorry. It won't happen again." I then stand, knowing that I'm not sorry and that our kiss will happen again. "Okay, friend, how about we finish this interview?"

Smiling from where's she still sat, Clara then asks me one of her interview questions. "If you could have any super power, what would it be?"

Feeling a whole lot lighter, I joke with an irrepressible grin. "Irresistible to the opposite sex?" Meaning...irresistible to you, Clara Thorn.

For the rest of the interview, our chemistry continued to silently simmer away. After our little heart to heart and our little mouth to mouth, I emotionally feel so much lighter. It did me good to talk to Clara about Maci. It also did me good to kiss her. In my mind, there's now no doubt that I want her. I've just got to figure out how I now get her. All of which I will figure out, after the show tonight.

This show has to be my best one yet. When I get up on that stage, I'll perform my heart and my soul out.

They all want Rhys Ryan.

They will all get Rhys Ryan.

Then I will get what I want...Clara.

**HEY LOVELIES....I HOPE YOU ARE ALL ENJOYING THE AAA SERIES, RHYS RYAN STYLEE? EVERY VOTE & COMMENT, MAKES ME SO GOOEY & HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYYY 😊