Page 80 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

“I was shite until I heard your sweet voice,” he said without any sound of shame. “Now, I feel like I can breatheagain.”

Tara’s mouth dropped open. It was like he could hear what she was thinking. Her eyes widened. Surely he couldn’t hear her thoughts. Right? But just to be sure she thought,I think you’re the sexiest man I’ve ever seen, and I miss the way you smell. She waited to see if he would respond to her ridiculousthoughts.

“Are you excited about the prom?” Elias asked, sounding a little less enthusiastic than he had when she’d firstanswered.

“I guess,” she answered honestly. “It’s not on my bucket list or anything.”Okay, so he can’t hear my thoughts. Good toknow.

Elias laughed. “Not big ondancing?”

“Just not big on dresses,” sheadmitted.

“That’s a right shame, princess. I have a feeling you’re breathtaking in adress.”

Tara felt her cheeks warm. “Um, so, how are things going with the top-secret environmentalemergency?”

He groaned. “I’m sorry. I know I’ve kept things very lock andkey.”

“It’s not a big deal. We’re just friends, Elias. You aren’t required to share every detail of your life with me.” Tara didn’t want him to tell her things just because he thought she was upset. She wanted him to share things with her because he wantedto.

“You know I want us to be more than friends,” Elias said. “I don’t want to hinder that from happening by making you think I’m keeping things from you or don’t want to share things about my life withyou.”

Tara forced herself not to do some stupid little giddy dance over hearing him tell her he wanted them to be more than friends. And then failed because she totally did a stupid little girly dance. “So, what I’m hearing you say is that you want to tell me about what’s going on, but youcan’t?”

“That about sums it up. There’s more than meets the eye to our company. Nothing illegal or nefarious or anything, just confidential. All secrets you will be privy to if you come work forTGTE.”

“I guess every company has trade secrets,” she said. Maybe that was why they had such a strange personality test for their potential new hires, because of the type of information they would be trustedwith.

“I would imagine so,” Elias agreed. “But what TGTE does is all good. Secrets often have a bad connotation. I don’t want you to think we are some kind of evil shadow corporation orsomething.”

She could hear the urgency in his voice for her to believe him, like it mattered very much that she didn’t think he was involved in something dark orsinister.

“Okay,” she said. She wasn’t really sure what else she could say. Tara wanted everything he said to be true. And she truly hoped it was, but she had only known Elias for a month, and during three of those weeks their only contact had been through text messages. Trusting him wasn’t a hard thing for her heart to do, but her head was telling her heart what a stupid organ itwas.

“I guess I need to let you go so you can get ready for your evening,” he said after a minute of silence. “I really do hope you have a lovelytime.”

Tara laughed at how forced his words were. “It sounds like you’d rather jump off a building than tell methat.”

“No,” he said. “I really do want you to enjoy yourself. I just want it to be without thatwanker.”

This made her laugh even harder. He was completely sincere and unapologetic about it which just seemed to make it all the funnier toher.

“I’m glad my jealousy is a form of entertainment for you, luv. Let me tell you, it’s a right laugh forme.”

Tara sighed as her laughter died. “I’m not laughing atyou,”

“You’renot?”

“Okay, maybe I am. But only because you sound so forlorn about something silly. It’s a dance and I’m not even arriving with him. I’m riding withShelly.”

“So you won’t be alone in the car withhim?”

“Hadn’t planned on it,” shesaid.

“Are you going to dance with him?” he asked. Tara heard some deep voices in the background, and then Elias sighed and said, “Yes, I know I sound like a jealous boyfriend, you overgrowntroll.”

“Are you talking to Jax?” she asked, her eyes going wide. She couldn’t imagine a man like Jax being okay with being called an overgrowntroll.

“No, princess. I’m talking to a deadman.”

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