Page 57 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

Bloody hell, don’t swoon.“All right, you heard me. Now answer thequestion.”

His brow rose. “Bossy. I likeit.”

She rolled her eyes and stared at him,waiting.

“All right, all right,” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “I honestly thought I would just take over the farm my grandparents had. It was all I knew. I like the hard work. I like being outside, taking care of the animals. So, I guess in a way, I did want to work in nature. I just didn’t know it would be in the capacity that I donow.”

“Do you miss yourgrandparents?”

“I do,” he said softly. “They passed a yearago.”

Tara’s hand reached out instinctively, wanting and needing to comfort him, but she quickly dropped it. “I’m sosorry.”

Elias shook his head. “It’s all right. They lived long lives and died within days of each other, which I think was a blessing. They were so in love. I don’t think either of them would have known what to do without theother.”

“My parents were that way,” Tara said, remembering how her parents had looked at each other. How she had found them many times dancing in the kitchen to only a tune they heard because there was no music playing. She could remember thinking she hoped she would one day have a man look at her the way her dad looked at her mom. It made her wonder why anyone would settle for anything less than that. Her eyes widened as she remembered what Elias had texted her. He had said,Why would he be with a fake imitation if he couldn’t be withher?

“Tara?” He rolled the chair closer to the bed until he was right in front of her. “What’swrong?”

“Yourtext.”

He sighed. “It was intense. I know. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was worried I was losing any chance with you. All because I just wasn’t honest with you about why I felt like we couldn’t be together. The thing is…” He took her hand in his, and Tara felt as if tiny volts of electricity were running through her body, starting at the point where he touched her. “I’ve never really been interested in a girl before. I’ve never dated. I thought it was because I didn’t have time. I’ve always been focused on work. But then I met you. It was like I had been seeing life in black and white, and suddenly you splashed color all over myworld.”

“You’re twenty and you’ve never dated?” Tara found that hard to believe. But then, she was eighteen and had gone on her first sort-of-date that very night. And if someone worked a lot, itwouldmake it hard to date, sheguessed.

“I’m not one to waste my emotions on something I know won’tlast.”

Tara stared down at the hand so gently but firmly in his own. It felt so right. As if her hand had been made from a mold to specifically fit his. Her phone chimed with an alert, and Elias’s hand tightened momentarily but then releasedhers.

Tara picked up the phone and saw it was a text fromTucker.

I had a reallygood time today. I hope you didtoo.

She had had a good time.Why did that make her feel like she was somehow betrayingElias?

His movement took her eyes from the phone. Elias had gotten up and was standing next to the window looking out into the night. “I like being with you,” he said, his voice a little cooler than it hadbeen.

“I like being with you,too.”

“But you had a good time with the boy,” he said. His words weren’t aquestion.

“Yes,bu—”

“I know I don’t have the right, yet, to tell you not to seehim.”

“Excuse me?” Tara’s hackles rose. “What do you mean,yet?”

He turned to look at her, and his lips rose slightly. The glint in his eyes made her shiver. “It means exactly what it sounds like. When you’re mine, I will definitely have a say in whether or not you are around Tucker. Just as you will have a say in who I amaround.”

“When I’m yours?” Her brow rose. “You’ve gone from telling me we couldn’t be together to talking like it’sinevitable.”

He shrugged and slid his hands into his pockets. “Things are clearer to metonight.”

“Why?” shechallenged.

“Thepoem.”

Tara crossed her arms in front of her and forced herself not to huff like a petulant child. “It was just a schoolassignment.”

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