Page 8 of Enspelled

“We should get going, unless you want to get caught.” He shoves the car door and climbs out, slamming the door shut behind him.

For a second, I stare after him as he strolls right up to Layla Markham’s front door. In broad daylight. “No,” I whisper as I fumble for my seatbelt. “Don’t you dare just—”

He twists the door open and steps inside.

I tear my seatbelt off and grab for the car door. My hopes of waiting until night go out the window. What if he takes Layla’s grimoire and uses it to leverage something from me, since he knows that’s the thing I came for?

No, I have to go after him. Now. I scurry after Bodie, my gaze darting all around me as I hurry up the stone path and through the front door. Luckily for me, Layla has a handful of neighbors in the quiet part of Madden Grove. But all it would take is one person to see me. Just one.

I don’t even want tothinkwhat Layla would do to me.

He’s standing just inside the cozy dark wood and beige living room, chewing on the candy bar he tried to offer me in the grocery store parking lot.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” I whisper. Why I’m bothering when I’m positive no one is in the house, I couldn’t tell you, but it feels right to be discreet when you’ve just invited yourself into someone else’s house. “You don’t even know what I came here for.”

Finished chewing, he swallows. “Grimoire. Or do witches keep their spells in other books?” His expression is innocent, but his eyes are laughing at me.

“If anyone catches us,” I say as I step past him and head for the stairs, “I’m telling them you kidnapped me and forced me here.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to convince them if I was the one leading the way and not you?” he says, not even trying to lower his voice.

I spin around, and just as I’d thought, a wide grin is stretching his face as he lifts his gaze from where he must have had it pointed at my ass. Since I live in baggy jeans and shirts, I doubt he saw anything, but still.

“Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be a mouse?” I threaten.

“Once.”

I blink at him. “What?”

He continues up the staircase, gripping me by my hips to move me out of the way. His hands are overly warm, which is no surprise since wolves have a tendency to walk around in t-shirts and no coat. Even in winter. “I had a Mini for a while. Tiny car.”

My eyes narrow as he unerringly heads for Layla’s bedroom, a white and pink frilly decorated space that makes my lip curl. “What does a tiny car have to do with—”

“It was claustrophobic,” he interrupts. “I thought if I was smaller, maybe it would help. You want me to sniff the book out?”

My bangs fall into my eyes, and I blow the brown strands away so I can see. “No. I know where it is,” I say as I nudge past him and step into Layla’s closet.

Being back here is downright risky, if not dangerous. I’ll be lucky if the only thing she does is kick me out of the coven. But if she’s in a bad mood when she finds me…? I gulp.

The bulky, brown leather book with the gold clasp sealing its many pages closed is exactly where I left it hours before: on a top closet shelf, tucked beneath a pink and white striped hat box.

I have to stretch a little to get it, and all the while, I feel Bodie’s eyes on my ass. “You could help instead of staring at my ass,” I mutter.

“I could,” he agrees. “But you seem to have things well in hand.”

Although I turn to glare at him once the book is in my hands, a part of me is glad he didn’t offer. He’s about a foot taller than me, so he could have done it no problem, but the thought of accepting his help isn’t going to happen.

And he’s a wolf, so he’d be smug about it

No witch needs help from a wolf.

“I do. Let’s get out of here before—” The hum of a car engine cuts me off.

Please let it be someone just driving past.

I hold my breath as the engine approaches the house, and when it slows, I grip the grimoire tighter in my arms. If that’s Layla, I’m dead. There’s no way she won’t come down hard on me if she finds me here.

My eyes go to Bodie, who gazes back at me as if curious to see what I’m going to do.

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