A Pinch of Kitchen Magic (2 page)

“
With is a broad term.”
His lips twitched. “I remember Hettie. She’s a great teacher. I
took one of her summer classes on Astral Projection. She’s a very
insightful woman and the Institute was sad to see her
go.”

“
You know her?” The
anxiety that gripped her chest melted away. She drifted toward the
island. He couldn’t be all that stuffy if Hettie had allowed him to
strike up a friendship. “I miss her.”

“
I did know her at one
time. I’m sure her sudden departure to Europe was a shock.” He
stroked his long slender fingers along the shiny purple skin of an
eggplant before moving on to poke a garlic bulb.

Mmm. Now there’s a guy who
probably knows exactly how to touch a woman to make her feel
shivery and warm.
She shoved the thought
to the back of her mind. “Teaching magical subjects was a hobby for
her.” Aidan shrugged. “She always said when she retired she’d teach
the French a thing or two about cooking. I guess she’s making good
on the promise. She was the real whiz in the kitchen. Sadly, I
didn’t inherit her skill.”

“
Only because you refuse
to acknowledge your magical gift.”

“
Yeah, right.” She nibbled
on a bit of green pepper. “Aunt Hettie’s first love was cooking,
then gardening. I’m afraid I don’t have the same passion that she
does, but I hope she’s having a good time. She deserves to find
happiness.” She caught the wistful tone in her own voice. As she
chewed the bitter pepper, she silently berated herself for being
too emotional.

“
So do you.” He lifted an
eyebrow. “Knowing Hettie, it’s a wonder she hasn’t made the
international news yet.” Matteus’s gaze fell on her once more then
he shook himself as if he’d fallen into a trance of sorts. “Enough
of the pleasantries. Let’s get started.” He clapped his hands.
“Show me what you can do with your magic thus far.”

Aidan reeled at the abrupt change in
topic. “All right, but don’t blame me if you burst into flame or
end up with some sort of food all over you.” She scrunched up her
nose in concentration, flicking her right wrist, fingers extended.
When nothing happened, she narrowed her eyes at a basket of
tomatoes and wiggled her fingers in an effort to make the red fruit
rise into the air.

Nothing happened. The basket remained
in quiet repose.

Matteus cleared his throat. “Might I
make a suggestion?”

Annoyed, she glanced up to find him
alarmingly close to her. “Okay.”

“
You are trying too
hard.”

“
That doesn’t help me at
all.” She glared at him. He was too handsome. She didn’t trust
handsome men. Especially men whose jeans hugged their legs and rear
in all the right places. “Not a bit.” The skin of his forearms
beckoned to her from his rolled up shirt sleeves.
Really, he’s just too good looking to take
seriously.

Why couldn’t the Institute have sent
over a balding, middle-aged hairy man with a paunch and a dead
tooth? She wished they had because she knew her skills assessor
could be a severe distraction. From what, Aidan, crappy magic and
bad cooking? That might be a great change.

Hush up
, she told her bossy conscience. Aidan glanced again at his
toned forearms, the sprinkling of light brown hair over taut muscle
and her stomach tightened with unfamiliar longing. It had been a
long time since she’d had a man in her life—a very long time, and
considering her last guy went stark raving mad at the end of the
relationship, she didn’t want to get involved in
another.

“
Um…” What could she say
except agree with him? She shivered as she swept her gaze over his
chest to his trim waist, then lower still to the jeans that were so
tight she could almost imagine his…

Her cheeks burned at the thought. “Oh
my.” She could definitely make an exception for him.

Matteus sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Watch me.” He lifted his right hand. “Use the energy that resides
inside you. It’s a matter of simple control and designation.” With
the tiniest movement of his wrist, he coaxed two tomatoes from the
basket to hover above the cutting board. “Like this.” He crooked
his index finger and the fruit fell to the board with a soft thump.
“Now you. Manipulate the knife and cut them in half.”

“
I can’t.” She caught her
bottom lip between her teeth. She stared at the two red tomatoes.
“I’ve only had this magic—this energy—for two days. I have no idea
how to use it.”

“
Thus the reason I’m
here.” He moved behind her. “Let me show you. Also from now on, you
are forbidden to use the word ‘can’t.’ It’s irritating and
completely destroys any forward momentum or confidence.”

Excitement skittered down her spine
while thoughts of forbidden dark places danced through her mind
while his body brushed against her back. “What now?” The question
was barely louder than a whisper as he held her hand suspended in
the air.

“
Become the object you
wish to move. Think of nothing other than that object.” His words
caressed her cheek, stirring a few escaped blonde tendrils of her
upswept hair. “Convince the object it has nothing else better to do
than your bidding.”

Aidan nodded, her throat
too dry to utter words.
If I force my
magic to make him do my bidding, would he kiss me?
That thought, too, was shoved to the very back
recesses of her mind.
Don’t be silly,
Aidan.

When he released her hand, she nearly
cried out—she felt the loss of his warmth that deeply. “Try
again.”

“
Okay.” She focused her
eyes on the chef’s knife, she imagined herself filling the cool
metal of the blade as she rested herself in the weighted balance of
the handle. Swishing her wrist, a smile curled her lips when the
knife levitated a few inches over the cutting board, wobbled for a
brief second or two, and then inexorably glanced off the side of
the first tomato. The carving piece landed with a clatter on the
cutting board. “Crap.”

“
It will come. You just
need to practice.” At the snap of his fingers, a bushel basket full
of ripe, juicy tomatoes appeared on her cutting board at the snap
of his fingers. “Again.”

“
That’s not fair!” A knot
of dread grew in her stomach. It may have well been a thousand
tomatoes since she couldn’t slice even one.

“
Nothing in life is. When
you have mastered the art of cutting the tomatoes in half, call
me.” He handed her his card. “I expect nothing less than your best
effort. I don’t make house calls for mere amateurs. You’re either
serious or you’re not.”

Aidan scanned the silvery print on the
smooth indigo card. “Matteus E. D’Luca.” She chuckled, opened her
mouth to comment on his lyrical-sounding name, but he was
gone.

* * * *

When he spied the huge pile of tomato
bits in the woefully small kitchen, Matteus sighed. He’d only asked
that she cut the fruit in half, figuring she’d never make it
through the bushel. Instead, she had succeeded in putting a fine
dice on them, resulting in a leaky, watery mountain of orange- red
tomato flesh.

It had only taken her two
hours to accomplish the task. His chest swelled with preliminary
teacher-student pride.
That’s my
girl.
He shook his head. Not that she was
his girl in any sense. He wasn’t attracted to her like
that.

But magical aptitude as she had might
be an issue—for his peace of mind. She had the potential to become
a problem. He didn’t have time for problems. Especially problems
that possessed masses of blonde-brown hair and big brown doe eyes
he could easily lose himself in. He hadn’t left his
responsibilities at the Institute to become romantically involved
with her. There was too much at stake for him to get sidetracked by
a kitchen witch.

He forced himself to remember his
motto: “If you don’t get involved, they can’t get hurt you.”
Inhaling and then slowly exhaling, he nodded to himself. He would
teach her to use her magic in a responsible way, then leave.
Nothing more.

“
Well done, Aidan.” He
leaned a shoulder against the doorframe while she wiped her fingers
on the stained white apron she wore. His insides tightened when a
proud smile parted her full pink lips. “How were you able to
achieve such an even dice on something as unstable as tomatoes,
especially when you’ve never directed your magic
before?”

“
I have no idea.” She
shrugged. The slight rise and fall of her shoulders pulled the
fabric of her t-shirt taut over the ample curve of her chest. “I
set out to cut them in half, like you asked. Once that task was
done, I found with just the simple nudge of my mind I could
convince the knife it wanted to dice the tomato.” She focused her
wide eyes on him. “The knife obeyed me. Before I knew it, I had
this.” She gestured to the culinary artwork in front of
her.

“
Excellent.” He jammed his
fingers into the pockets of his jeans. “But you’re a tiny bit
wrong. The object didn’t obey you. It’s not a living thing and has
no brain or consciousness.”

“
Oh?” Confusion shadowed
her eyes.

Great, now I’ve undermined
her budding confidence.
“It’s not bad. For
a moment, you became the object in question until you could
manipulate it.” He pushed off from the doorframe. “You moved it
with your will, with your energies. You were so connected to it,
you made it move.” When she gave him a doubtful glance, he sighed.
“In basic terms, you made the knife move as if you had an invisible
hand.”

“
Makes sense. I
felt…powerful.” She closed her eyes as if she contemplated her
recent feat. When she opened them again, he found himself
surrounded by the chocolate velvet of her gaze. “I felt somehow
different when I used my magic.”

“
Remember power corrupts
if you don’t use it correctly…or if you allow it to rule you.” He
waved a hand in the air, watching in satisfaction as the pile of
chopped tomatoes leapt into a waiting stockpot on the stove. “You
must be in control at all times when exercising your energies.
Otherwise, you could be stuck in a dark, evil place.”

Aidan nodded. “What if I don’t want
this magic? Can I send it back? For that matter, where did it come
from?”

Matteus ignored the enticing curve of
her hip as she rested it against the counter. “Hettie didn’t
explain why you might have a trace amount of power within
you?”

She shook her head as she added
pinches of various herbs to the pot. “She only said the women of my
family have showed an affinity for magic since the early 1700s.
Something about leftover energies from immigrants to America. I
didn’t really pay much attention since I thought they were made-up
stories from her.” Aidan measured out chicken stock then dumped the
liquid over everything else. “Hettie said if a woman was going to
recognize and use her powers, they would manifest sometime in her
twenties. Mine didn’t.”

“
Until you turned thirty.”
He frowned. “That’s odd. Have you been extremely focused on
something else? If a subject is relaxed or if they allow their mind
to empty, that’s when the magic will make its first appearance.”
Something stirred deep within him when she brought a wooden spoon
to her mouth in order to taste the seasoning of the sauce. “How
have you been passing the time?”

Lips lifted in a smile, she met his
gaze. “Trying to cook, or to be more accurate, trying to keep my
cooking projects from burning, drying out and otherwise becoming
radically inedible or unstable.”

“
Now it becomes clear.” He
lifted a towel draped over a metal bowl. A ball of dough reposed
within the warm depths. “I suspect you’ve always had the energies
in your genetic make-up but they’ve been channeled into your
cooking. Because you weren’t aware of them before now, it’s been
the magic that’s been thwarting your success in the
kitchen.”

“
So, if I can get a grip
on my magic, you’re telling me I can learn to cook?” Excitement
bubbled in her voice.

He nodded. “Yes.”

“
I’ll take the culinary
world by storm.” She threw in a few pinches of salt, followed by
two grinds of the peppermill. “I can have my own cooking show. I’ll
show those arrogant chefs what cooking’s really about while putting
my own spin on things.”

Matteus winced.
And yet another student has delusions of grandeur
without thought to the risks.
This was not
a positive development. “That would be a grave mistake on your
part.” He closed the distance between them. When he dropped his
hands on her shoulders, he sucked in his breath at the immediate
reaction he experienced. His fingers tingled with sparks not of his
making. “Arrogance and magic do not mix. And white magic such as
yours should be cultivated toward the humanities or ecology.
Definitely
do not
dabble in Hollywood aspirations of fame and
fortune.”

“
But I want to be a great
chef. If magic can get me to my goal, why shouldn’t I make use of
it?” She wrinkled her nose. “I’ll have an advantage.”

Letting his hands dangle at his sides,
he backed a few steps away from her. It was safer to maintain
breathing room between them plus the tingling sparks ebbed. “That’s
exactly why I’m here. Using magic for personal gain has dire
consequences.” He backed up another few steps until he bumped into
the island. “You would either forfeit your power or the power would
become a deadly cancer, eating away at your soul until you became a
dried, useless shell of your former self—full of magic certainly,
yet you’d have given away everything else of use and value.” How
many times had he seen magic—or more directly the love of power in
conjunction with magic—destroy people he’d known?