A Pinch of Kitchen Magic Read Online Free

not
in the mood for a lecture.”
    Two seconds later, the bits of dough
pulsed and throbbed with life. A medium sized glob jumped from the
island onto the floor. It paused, quivered for a moment, and then
rolled around the checkered tiles, collecting smaller bits as it
went. As the mass moved about the floor, other pieces of dough
became absorbed into the larger wad until it was as big as a
basketball. It crawled over the walls, moved along the ceiling,
skimmed through the cracks and crevices of the kitchen until it
incorporated every renegade bit of dough into itself.
    The resulting dough formed a round
before her. Now a good four feet in circumference, the dough ball
shuddered, before slumping, its movement finished. “What am I
supposed to do with it?”
    She tapped a fingernail
against her front teeth as she contemplated the giant mass of
dirty, dusty pizza dough. The tip of a pencil even poked through a
portion of the dough. She tried to concentrate on the ball but it
refused to move. Annoyed and embarrassed, Aidan yanked an
industrial-strength garbage bag from underneath the counter. “Fine.
If you won’t move, I’ll just throw you out. It’s not like I can use
you now.” Especially after it had briefly been alive. She
shivered. This magic stuff is going to
take a while to get used to. After
grabbing the chef’s knife from her board, she hacked the dough mass
into smaller, manageable sections. Finished with the task, she
chucked the pieces into the garbage bag, tied it off, and threw it
into the trash bin in her garage.
    A tick over her left eyebrow
superseded her feeling of accomplishment.
    When she returned to the kitchen, her
gaze alighted on the bored face of Matteus as he sat perched on the
now clean countertop.
    “ I’ll give you points for
cleverness, but as a general rule, that was cheating. We’ll begin
again.”
    With a strangled sound of frustration
in her throat, Aidan untied her apron, threw it in his general
direction, and fled to the living room.

 
     
     
     
     

Chapter Two
     
    Kill more flies with
honey
     
    Aidan sensed Matteus’s presence behind
her long before she saw him. The slight crackle of energy in the
air confirmed his identity as did the tingling sensations rushing
over her skin. “Why do you do that?” She inhaled his scent then bit
her lip to suppress a sigh. Only he had the power to make her feel
turned inside out. Why was that?
    “ Do what?”
    Annoyed, she danced out of his
gravitational pull, dropped onto a plum colored suede sofa and
crossed her arms. “Popping in and out of the air. Why can’t you
just walk through the house like a normal person?” She resented his
spotless, clean clothes since her own faded jeans and t-shirt
sported questionable bits of crusty food and stains. She hadn’t
wanted to change into something else for fear he’d pop in on her
while she was halfway through.
    “ Using magic is more fun
and a great way to exercise the mind.” Matteus shrugged. “And
normal is subjective anyway.”
    She frowned. As he drifted through the
sparsely furnished room, his gaze swept the purple and turquoise
hued rug as well as the glass topped coffee table. “Where do you go
when you disappear?”
    “ Home or back to the
Institute. It depends.”
    Obviously the man didn’t buy into the
theory that conversation was a necessary part of successful
civilizations. “Why the disappearing act?” She picked at a splotch
of tomato sauce on her jeans. “Is it even a form of
transportation?”
    “ It is—at least for our
kind.” His lips twitched. “I maintain a property on the island of
Santorini as well as a townhouse in New York.” He stared at her.
“Surely your Aunt Hettie explained to you the basic premise
regarding Astral Projection?”
    “ She did, but I wasn’t
very interested at the time. Can’t you just tell me the crib notes
version?” She settled in for what was most likely going to be a
boring lecture. Is that all he was capable of?
    “