A Pinch of Kitchen Magic (4 page)

“
Thanks.” Aidan allowed
herself a small smile. She took a deep breath, coughing when the
acrid smoke crept into her lungs. “I feel powerful in the kitchen.
My nerves are tingling, my mind is sharper.” She twirled around and
shot a joyful glance over her shoulder at him. “This is where I
belong. A kitchen with food around me and herbs and spices just
outside my back door, is my nirvana, my heaven.”

“
Hettie did say your
talent showed strong in a kitchen setting but she never elaborated
on it before she left for Europe. And she must not have wished to
be disturbed, as I can’t trace her magical signature.” He rubbed
his jaw. “Could it be possible?”

“
Could what be possible?”
Aidan came to a wobbly halt before him, clutching onto his arm to
steady herself. As before, sparks flew between them. “Matteus?” Her
heart beat frantically against her ribcage as the storm in his eyes
drowned her, pulled her under with hypnotic force. She drew in a
shuddering breath, waiting while anticipation for the unknown
crawled through her stomach.

“
I wonder.” Matteus closed
the distance between them and pressed his mouth to hers.

* * * *

He had lost his mind. In one brief,
shining moment of insanity, he ceased to exist as the man he had
come to know and morphed into a man who cared nothing for destiny
or common sense. As he caressed her soft lips, he had enough
willpower to resist the urge to release her upswept hair from the
clip that kept it in place. When he heard her soft sound of
pleasure, he pulled away, shaken. His hard-won control wouldn’t
last if she insisted on making such sexy noises. “This must not be
repeated.”

“
I may not be an expert at
kissing, but I didn’t think it was that bad.” Aidan stared at him,
her brown eyes wide and clouded with confusion with irritation
quickly chasing it.

That’s the understatement
of the year
.

He took a step back, ignoring how his
leather loafer squelched in a puddle of sticky tomato sauce. “As
kisses go, it was fair. I can do much better, but that’s beside the
point.” He wanted to kiss the exasperation from her face, wanted to
show her just how good a kisser he was, but didn’t trust himself to
move any closer to her. The power she exuded almost sparkled like a
rocket on the Fourth of July. It still warmed his insides and made
its presence known as if he’d swallowed a handful of that popping
rock candy.

No wonder Hettie had sent him a
special note regarding Aidan’s potential.

“
Look, forget about the
kiss. It was a mistake that caught me in a weak moment.” His left
temple started to pound. The damn alarm hammered his brain. “Enough
of the noise!” He pointed at the smoke detector, grunting with
satisfaction when it shattered into tiny pieces of white plastic.
“Remind me to replace that for you.” By accident, his gaze fell to
her lips. They were red and a bit swollen from the crush of his
kiss. As his gut clenched with need, he groaned. He’d like nothing
more than to kiss her again, continue her education into something
much more exciting that would sate them both. To distract himself,
he glanced around the kitchen that now resembled the scene of a
food fight in a school cafeteria. “You used magic to quell the
situation.”

She shrugged then knelt down to mop up
the red spill. “Is that important?”

Matteus rubbed his temple as he
admired her curves when she applied herself to her task.
“Immensely.” Moving away from her, he fiddled with her chef’s
knife. Light glanced off the shiny blade. “The kitchen must be your
grounding area. You gain the bulk of your power in this room for
some reason.”

“
Will that be a problem?”
Aidan looked up, her lips forming a frown.

Compared to the new and
bigger problem of my immediate and inexplicable attraction to
you
? He grimaced. “No. It just means you
can only use your powers in the kitchen. I have no idea, yet, how
much of an issue it will prove to be. I also wonder if it’s limited
to this kitchen or would any kitchen let you use your magic.”
Though his kitchen in New York was small, the one in the villa on
Santorini was quite spacious. His insides warmed to think of seeing
her pad about the light-filled room wearing only one of his
t-shirts…

Almost ruthlessly, he shoved away the
thought.

She stood, her fingers intertwined in
the towel. “Well, Aunt Hettie always told me the kitchen is the
heart of any home. Since this used to be her house, I guess she was
right.” She tossed the stained dishrag into the sink. When she
turned back to him, she cocked her head, waiting. “The kids at
school used to call Aunt Hettie a kitchen witch. Maybe this is why.
Maybe I’ll be like her.”

“
Your energy is apparently
drawn to the room where she spent most of her time. It makes
sense.” Matteus took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Let’s
move on with the rest of your assessment.” He stroked a red pepper,
following the waxy curve of its crimson flesh while his mind
wandered to the possibilities of stroking the curve of Aidan’s hip.
He gritted his teeth. Banishing her from his mind was proving to be
a difficult task. “Except I find I have no patience to deal with
your education anymore today. We’ll begin again tomorrow
afternoon.” Of its own accord, the hand holding the knife began to
slice the pepper into even strips. He wasn’t aware he wanted to
engage in menial kitchen tasks such as this.

It was only when he caught
the last fragment of her giggle that understanding skipped through
his mind.
Aidan is manipulating my
hands
!

“
Stop at once. Magic
should never be used to control people against their
will.”

“
If it was truly against
your will, I wouldn’t be able to suggest it to you.” She drifted to
the butcher block, her eyes dancing with mirth, her dimples winking
at him from her rounded cheeks.

He frowned at her reasoning, and a
tiny part of his brain wondered if she had influenced their kiss as
well since he’d wanted that too. Matteus easily broke the bonds her
energies held over him, but he continued to chop the vegetable,
this time of his own deliberate choosing. He watched her warily. “I
will be forced to remove you from your magic if you continue to
abuse your gift.” A brief, sharp stab of pain recalled his
wandering mind back to his task. “I’ll leave you a Primary
Instruction Book. At least then you can get a few questions
answered.”

“
You’ve cut yourself.” She
flicked a glance to his fingers.

With a partially uninterested glance,
he saw a shallow nick on the middle finger of his left hand. “This
is what comes from not paying attention.” Never had he made such a
stupid mistake as being distracted—especially by a woman. He was
always in tight control of his emotions and thoughts. He had to be,
otherwise, he’d be a dead man. Matteus narrowed his eyes. There was
something bewitching about Aidan and it had nothing to do with
white magic. “You did this.”

Aidan moved closer. She bent her head
to examine the wound. “Oh please. This is just a tiny cut. If I
wanted to injure you with a knife, don’t you think I’d have done
something bigger?” She grinned. “I’m kidding. One time I sliced off
the very end of my thumb, which was unfortunate since I was
chopping baby carrots.” She winked. “Imagine trying to find a thumb
tip in that mess. But I did and they sewed it back on quite
nicely.”

His nose twitched as her perfume wound
enticing fingers around his consciousness, building images in his
mind of cookies, coffee, and early mornings in bed. Desire
tightened his chest as the images of rumpled bedclothes and tangled
strands of her hair danced in his head. “You really have no
aptitude for cooking, do you?” He brought his knuckle to his mouth
to suck off the bit of blood.

“
I’m a lousy chef, but I’m
hoping the magic will help in that department.” She gestured at him
and her smile widened. “That’s gross. I’ll get something that will
kill the germs.” She moved to a scratched and well-worn wooden
pantry that had undoubtedly been a clothing armoire in its
past.

Matteus willed his body to relax. Not
an easy feat when heat crawled over his skin at her very nearness.
“As long as you use the magic to improve your culinary skills for
domestic enjoyment and not arrogant fame, I have no problem with
that.”

She returned with a glass jar of
honey. “This will fix you right up.”

“
What does honey have to
do with wounds?” He inhaled sharply when she sidled next to him and
took his hand into hers. “I’ve taken honey in my tea or used it in
glazes but never as a homeopathic remedy.” His heart raced as she
let a few drops of the thick, amber syrup dribble onto his
finger.

Her tinkling laughter filled the
kitchen. “Honey has always been used as an antiseptic.” She rubbed
the sticky substance over his fingers, massaging it into the cut.
“It prevents infection and encourages healing.” She lifted her gaze
to his. “I’ve heard it can heal common complaints like sore
throats, acne or bad breath or even serious illnesses like heart
disease or cancer. There should be more research done instead of
spending crazy money on dangerous chemicals they label as
medicine.”

Matteus said nothing. The
words died in his throat as she continued her ministrations to his
cut. He could think of another, much more satisfying, use for
honey. Images of the viscous liquid shimmering on the pale mound of
her breast flashed across his mind’s eye. “Uh, I think I’ll be fine
now.” He swallowed hard and claimed his hand with a bit more force
than necessary, clearing his throat when she frowned. “Thank you.”
He needed to get away before the harmless images had a chance to
blossom into real acts, before he had cause to abuse
his
power.

“
You’re welcome.” She
glanced at him from under her lashes. “Will you stay for
dinner?”

He repeated to himself that she wasn’t
his usual type of woman. “I’m sorry, I can’t.” He favored tall,
leggy blondes, not short, curvy redheads.

“
You can make your own
pizza.” Her tone was cajoling and innocent.

Not unless I have a death
wish
. “Absolutely not!” With a snap of his
fingers, he was gone.

* * * *

Aidan stamped her foot in
frustration.

She hated when he popped in and out of
her house. What gave him the right to dismiss her in the middle of
a conversation? And she was still hungry. No dough, no sauce, and
now the red peppers were off limits because he might have bled on
them. If she expected the magic to feed her better than she could
manually, she was sadly mistaken. With a sigh, she began to wash
out the pot.

Why couldn’t she just be a normal
woman with a normal life? Heck, why couldn’t she just whip up a pot
of soup without endangering herself or the whole neighborhood? And
worse, why couldn’t she stop thinking of ways to get her handsome
magic instructor into compromising positions?

Not having immediate answers, Aidan
found small comfort swishing the sponge in the soapy water. She
sighed when she remembered the feel of his mouth on hers, the way
his body fit to hers, the heat of being in his arms however
briefly. Her mind swam with forbidden images and her heart ached
with tantalizing promise.

Next time she saw Matteus, she would
demand he show her a few more ways to use her magic if only to have
him spend more time with her.

Chapter Three

Dreaming of roasted
chicken

What she wouldn’t give to be able to
roast a chicken as well as the one in the picture, all brown,
crispy skin, fragrant with savory goodness. Aidan’s mouth watered
as she flipped through the poultry section of a cookbook. Sighing,
she reached for a small glass jar. She had been practicing her
magic for three days and her skill in the kitchen left much to be
desired. In all that time, her instructor hadn’t paid her a visit.
She didn’t know what made her sadder: her inability to cook or the
fact she missed him. Unscrewing the cap to the spice jar, she
inhaled the aroma of the herb blend.

“
God that smells good.” If
a chicken rub could be a perfume then this would be it. Floral,
savory with just a hint of thyme and rosemary, Aidan thought she
could even detect the elusive scent of bay leaves. “Too bad you’re
not magical either.” Replacing the cap, she turned another page of
the cookbook.

She rested her chin in her hand.
Staring dreamily at a collection of tin ladles that hung on the
golden yellow wall, she envisioned herself with a raw chicken
before her. In her daydream, Aidan massaged the cold skin of the
bird with her fingers. She sprinkled on a goodly amount of the
aromatic spice blend, rubbing the herbs into the breast of the
chicken. She slathered olive oil and greenery into the legs, coated
the pale thighs.

Then her vision flickered and skipped.
Matteus lay stretched on red satin sheets as she rubbed strawberry
flavored massage oil into the lean, trim planes of his back. She
worked her hands, slippery with oil, along his ribcage, skimmed
lower to his waist, slithered them past slim hips to…