Page 41 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

Moving slowly, as if he didn’t want to spook her, Elias reached forward and took the phone from her hand. He lifted it to his own ear, and with his eyes still on her, he spoke. “Good evening, Shelly.” He paused as Shelly spoke. Tara could hear her friend’s muted voice, but she must not be yelling anymore because she couldn’t make out thewords.

“I assure you that Tara is quite safe with me,” Elias told her. “I just wanted to have a chat with her.” He paused and then continued. “Yes, I could have called. But I was in the neighborhood.” He paused again. “Those are all very good questions that I am not going to answer. I will make sure Tara calls you once I leave so you will know I have kept my word. Goodbye.” He ended the call and pocketed her phone as he stepped into the house, forcing Tara to take a step back or become intimately acquainted with his very wet, very broadchest.

As he shut the door and the lock clicked into place, Tara finally got her mouth to work. “Why are youhere?”

“For the reason I told Shelly,” he said as he turned to look at her. “I told you I would see you soon, and I keep my word. Like I told Shelly, I wanted tochat.”

“Why?”

“Do you have a towel? I’d rather not drip water all over yourhouse.”

“That won’t be a problem since we aren’t leaving the foyer.” Tara crossed her arms in front of her. Her shock at having him show up was wearing off, and the ire he seemed to cause so easily was returning. Tara liked that. She could deal with irritation. She couldn’t deal with her need to be close to him.Stupid, weirdfeelings.

He glanced around the house and then cleared his throat. “I’m not a danger toyou.”

“Be that as it may, I’m not going to parade a strange man through my house. I shouldn’t have even let youinside.”

“Why did you?” Elias rubbed his hand through his hair, causing water droplets to fall all around him. The guy looked like he was on a magazine shoot with human-engineered weather and perfectly choreographed raindrops rolling down his cheek, neck, and under the collar of hisshirt.

Tara’s gaze snapped back to his face when he cleared his throat. “I don’t know,” she finallyanswered.

“Are you sure?” heasked.

The knowing look in his eyes, as if he could tell she was lying, made her growl as she turned on her heel. There was no point standing in the foyer if he was going to stick around, and it wasn’t like she could physically make him leave. And she wouldn’t call the cops because he wasn’t doing anything wrong, and yes, she knew those were all excuses. Tara didn’t look behind her to see if he was following. She knew he was because his eyes were burning a hole into her back. It was the same feeling she’d had after school in the parkinglot.

She turned right and headed down the hall, past Carol’s room, past the spare bedroom, until she was in front of her ownbedroom.

“Are we going to go inside or just stare at the door?” he asked from behind her … much too close behindher.

Tara hesitated, unsure allowing Elias into the confines of her own room was such a bright idea. It felt so …intimate.But then again, at eleven o’clock at night, while she was home alone, she’d opened the door to a man she’d met only a day ago. Apparentlybrightwasn’t a character quality she was trying to achieve thesedays.

She pushed the door open and walked in. Tara quickly glanced around to make sure there weren’t any bras hanging over a doorknob or bedpost and then breathed a sigh of relief. That would have been awkward. Or more awkward than it already was. She walked further in and then turned to face Elias. He was looking at her, not at theroom.

“So, what did you want to chat about? Probably should make it quick,” she said. When he said nothing and simply continued to look at her, she huffed.Super mature.“You wanted to talk. So talk. If not, then I’ll walk you out now, and we can both get on with our evening.” She took a step toward him, but instead of backing up, he stepped towardher.

“Oh dear.” Tara breathed out as her feet bumped with the toes of his shoes. She stepped back, quickly turned, and moved around him, a technique she’d performed in soccer a million times to fake out anopponent.

“I do want to chat,” he said. The sound of him sitting in her desk chair kept her from just walking out of her room. “Forgive me if I need a moment to gather my thoughts. I feel”—he paused for a moment and then continued—“out of sorts when I’m aroundyou.”

She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. She sighed, walked over to her bed, and sat down. Tara crossed her legs and propped her elbows on her knees, her hands playing idly with a string on her bedspread. “I have no idea whyIwould makeyoufeel out of sorts. And why would you want to talk to me? You don’t knowme.”

He stared at her silently. She tried not to squirm under his scrutiny and was about to look away when he finallyspoke.

“Whywouldn’tI want to talk toyou?”

“Fifty percent of people who answer a question with a question are hiding something serious,” Tarasaid.

“Really?” he asked as he settled back in the chair, propped his right leg on the knee of his left one, and rested his clasped hands in hislap.

Just make yourself at home. “No. That’s crap. I just made it up because it’s annoying when a person answers a bloody question with aquestion.”

“I apologize,” he said, sounding so reasonable, which irritated her even more because she felt so unreasonable. “I’m not trying to annoyyou.”

“Then what are youdoing?”

“Checking on you. You’re a teenage girl … home alone … at night. That’s not exactly the safestsituation.”

“And you’re an older guy … in my house … with me … alone … late at night,” Tara pointed out. “How safe is that? And how’d you know I wasalone?”

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