Twisted Magic (Book 2 of the Ink Series)

A choice

It didn't matter that I turned Hutch down. I was still drunk, and I couldn't go home.

Hutch offered me his bed. I climbed in knowing things were not going to go anywhere, and that it was nothing more than a harmless sleep over now. It just felt good to be near someone who enjoyed being around me.

I turned on my side lifting his arm and slipped beneath it. I was exhausted. And I quickly fell asleep to the sound of his breathing and his heart pounding against my back, holding tight to his arm.

Morning came too soon. I raised my head looking around the room for something to jar my memory. I knew I wasn't home. I knew I was with Hutch, but it didn't hit me just how awful I was about to feel.

I threw off the covers, staring at the empty spot beside me. I raked a hand through my tangled hair and gasped at the sight of myself in the mirror across from his bed.

"Morning," Hutch said, coming in the room wearing nothing but basketball shorts and a smile. He handed over a box of doughnuts, all glazed with white icing and sprinkles. He leaned against the doorway, his shorts hanging off him in that sexy way that always drove me wild in magazines. He toyed with his hair, the untidy look making him even more attractive.

"Brought you some fattening food to settle the hangover," Hutch said.

I opened the box and snagged a doughnut. "Thank you." I sighed. Was I really about to yell at him for the marks on my neck?

The problem was now there was proof of our encounter, and I wasn't sure how I would hide it or if I even wanted to.

I took a bite out of the doughnut. "What time is it?"

Hutch smirked, "almost ten."

I looked around his room, bare walls, and a couple of suitcases in the corner. A laptop sat on a rather simple desk, there wasn't a single photo or personal effect on his wall.

"Your room is so bare. Don't you have any pictures or sports memorabilia to hang up?"

Hutch took a seat. "I like to travel light. All my worldly possessions are back home in my real house." He smoothed a lock of hair behind my ear. I stuffed another bite of a doughnut in my mouth.

"So you have a home?" I dropped the rest of the doughnut in the box a little queasy. "What's it like?"

Hutch's eyes brightened at the mention of it. "Lovely, doll."

"Why do you do that?" I said, fighting against the butterflies.

He stroked another strand of hair behind my ear again; his fingertip's grazing my cheekbone. "Do what? Call you doll?"

I nodded feeling a bit bashful.

"It's a term of endearment." He leaned in, catching me off guard. He planted a kiss on my forehead.

"If you would like to take a shower before you go you're more than welcome," he smiled and left the room. My heart pounded in my chest. My stomach dropped, what was I doing?

I was lying in another guy's bed, enjoying myself and his affection. He was so sweet and polite, downright charming.

I looked in the mirror, and rough.

I drifted off into a daydream of what it would have been like if we slept together, scolding myself for even thinking about it.

I hurried to shower and make it home with a good excuse about why I was missing all night. I suddenly realized the choice I made was a bad one even if it felt pleasurable, even if I didn't sleep with him. I made a mistake; all because I was so confused about Slade and what to do.

I lathered my hair with the only shampoo in the shower and started to cry. I felt horrible in every way imaginable for liking Hutch. Even so, I knew that I did, I could feel the connection. I could feel the desire to be around him, the sadness that soon I would have to leave and figure out a way to hide what we did to the world. Nobody else would understand or see what I saw. They wouldn't feel how I felt.

Hutch understood me. He also wanted to help me learn how to be a witch—a good one, not an evil one like Audrey.

I moved through the hallway afraid to run into his brothers, but at the end of the hallway. I realized it was just Hutch and I. He looked up from the television and smiled.

"Feel better," he asked. I sat down beside him on the love seat.

"A little." I looked away. "You said you wanted to help me. Do you still want to help me?"

He searched my eyes confused by my uncertainty. "Of course I want to help you. I thought we settled it last night."

"What do you mean settled?"

Hutch cracked a smile. "Have you forgotten that fast?" he lifted my hand kissing my knuckles.

The almost sex that occurred last night, I didn't forget, but I didn't know what that mattered. "We almost made a really big mistake. And you gave me this reminder." I pointed to my neck where the reddish mark rested for the world to see.

"I can be a handful sometimes when I like what I'm doing, and I like you," he smirked; I slapped him on the shoulder. "I thought last night we both were under the same understanding that you wanted my help. That you wanted to steer clear of the dark side."

"Hutch, please don't tell me that." I looked out the window. It made things so much different.

He sighed. "Don't think of it as anything more than I think you're a great girl. We barely know each other right?" He shrugged it off, making me feel more at ease.

I twirled a strand of wet hair around my finger thinking about our conversation. About what I wanted, I didn't want to have anything to do with the dark side. "I want no part of anything evil. But, I also care about them." I didn't finish my sentence.

"Your boyfriend and the other one's he hangs around with?"

I nodded. "Slade and his family are good people. Audrey is evil, and I am afraid of what she might do to them."

"You can only look after yourself. And asking them to break away from what they are will never happen, Doll. Slade and his family are indebted to these witches right?" Hutch stroked a hand against his chin.

"Yes." Was all I said.

"That's a bond made by the coven. Your bond is to Slade," Hutch explained. "Slade holds the link to you even though the supernatural is from somewhere dark."

My head was foggy and nothing Hutch was explaining made sense. "So what are you trying to tell me?" Did it mean I was screwed, or maybe I wasn't but Slade and the rest of them were?

"I'm saying I can help you. I can connect you to me if you want to break away from the coven." This was all hokey. The very things I never believed existed until recently.

"How? A spell?"

Hutch nodded. "There's a store up the boardwalk, we can get what we need to start the process. And then we will see what we can do about your friends. However, I am not promising anything. If they refuse there's nothing we can do."

I nodded. I understood, but that didn't mean I was satisfied with the answer. Or what it even meant to connect myself to another witch when Audrey warned me to steer clear of this sort of thing, of disobeying the coven.

I looked at Hutch. "Let's go."