Page 28 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

Tara wanted to kick herself in her own girl parts for the way she was drinking Elias in. He’d been a total ass, and yet she was salivating just from watching himwalk.

“Hey T,” Shellywhispered.

“What?”

“You’redrooling.”

“Unfortunately, you’re not wrong,” Taramuttered.

As soon as Elias was out the door, he spotted Tara and her friend at a picnic table about twenty yards away. His eyes lasered in on the lush brunette who had hijacked his attention from the moment he’d first entered the gym. Her pale grey/blue eyes were mesmerizing. She was beautiful, but it was clear she had no clue. The clothes she was wearing outlined her curvy figure and were a visual delight, but she seemed a bit awkward in them, as though she didn’t usually wear close-fitting things.All in all, she waslovely.

He’d been hard-pressed to tear his eyes away from her even for a second. There was a part of him that worried if he looked away, then she would disappear as if she’d never been there. He realized it was foolish thinking, but something about her had Elias all out of sorts, and it was driving him mad. Apparently, that madness made him a fool. There was no other excuse to blurt out something so insensitive about there being more women in the world in font of Tara. Not that Elias was exactly the most sensitive person on a good day. But he did know how to be respectful to a female. His grandmother had made sure ofit.

“Are you all right?” he asked Tara as soon as he was within five feet ofthem.

“I’m great,” she said her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I love it when a guy insults me. It’s myjam.”

Shelly, her friend, snorted and nudged her shoulder. “I knew I’d rub off on you one day. You’re doing me proud, female dog, doing meproud.”

“Did she just call youa—”

“Bitch,” said Tara. “Yes, yes shedid.”

“Okay, then. I just wanted to apologize for…” He paused and flexed his jaw. Apologizing wasn’t something he enjoyed doing. “…for being insensitive.I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t worthy of the boy’s affection. I was just a little thrown off by meetingyou.”

Tara staredup at Elias and tried to gauge the true meaning behind his words. He saidyouas though Tara was significant. Not like he was thrown off by meeting some random stranger. “It seemed more like you were thrown off by Tucker,” Tara pointed out, considering that had been when the rude comment had flown from hislips.

“You should be focusing on your studies, not flitting about with boys who don’t deserve you,” he said in a voice that was too nonchalant for the fierce expression on his handsomeface.

“First of all, I don’tflitwith anyone, let alone boys. Secondly, I really don’t think that’s any of your business.” Who was this guy? Why did he think he had the right to reprimand her? He’d known her all of thirtyminutes.

Elias stepped closer as he looked her in the eyes. “He’s not for you.” His words were slow and measured and sent a shiver down herspine.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop the trolley, pause the flitting,” Shelly said as she hopped off the table to stand beside Tara. “Are you like one of those alpha males who decides he wants a chick and just claims her? Tara…” Shelly clapped her hands and squealed like a child. “It’s just like what you said you wanted in your diary. You said you wanted a guy who would just take what he wanted. I think your exact words were, ‘I don’t want him to ask for permission because I want him to know the instant he sees me that I’m his, that he has a right to take mebecauseI’mhis.’”

Tara’s head turned slowly to look up at her best friend, her soon-to-be--dead best friend because Tara was going to smother her the next time she slept over. “Later, we will discuss the fact you just blurted that out like it wasn’t my own, personal, very private thoughts. How on earth did you remember all of that,verbatim?”

Shelly’s eyes fluttered as she sighed. “Girl, I ate that feces up. I told you that you should consider being a writer. I read those pages like tentimes.”

“Boundaries, Shelly, boundaries,” Tara muttered. “Remember? We talked about this…” She turned her attention back to Elias. He was studying her as if he couldn’t quite figure out what she was. The feeling was mutual because he seemed like so much more than just a randomguy.

“Soareyou?” Shelly asked him, obviously undeterred by Tara’swords.

“I am not claiming anyone,” Elias said without glancing atShelly.

“Then why are you out here?” Tara asked, genuinely curious as to why he would followthem.

“I owed you an apology. I…” He paused, and Tara found herself intrigued by the clenching of his strong jaw.“Are you going to fill out the forms?” he asked, apparently having changed his mind about whatever it was he’d been about tosay.

Shelly spoke before Tara could even open hermouth.

“We’re thinking about it. We’ve got some other options we want to explore. We don’t want to make any hastydecisions.”

Tara started to speak, but her BFFF nudged her in the arm as if to say, ‘Go with it.’ So she decided to keep her mouth shut, considering whatever Shelly was doing couldn’t be any worse than her blurting out what was in Tara’sdiary.

After several heartbeats and what looked like a serious internal battle on Elias’s part, he gave them a slight nod and said, “If you do fill them out, you can just bring them to the school office instead of mailing them. Jax and I will be in town for a couple of weeks, and we can just pick them up. No sense in wasting money and time to mail them in. It was nice to meet you both.” He turned on his heel and strode away back the way he’dcome.

Tara frowned. “Was that as odd to you as it was to me? And why on earth are they going to be staying here for twoweeks?”

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