Ella was impressed. 'Wow. I'd wondered how you got started.'
*
A waiter presented small portions of a couple of dishes to them and poured some wine.
'Thank you Kasib.' Matt acknowledged the waiter and turned his attention to Ella and the food. 'Now, here's a couple of the starters. I was thinking tortellini of lobster on Saturday and this is tomato minestrone with a basil pesto that I thought I would serve Friday. On Sunday I'm serving a tried and tested dish of linguine with shaved truffles, which is very simple to do and the chefs here can't go wrong with.'
As Ella tasted the food, she returned to their conversation. 'How did you get to know Azzam in the first place?'
'He went to university with Zander. Azzam had been ordered by his father to keep a low profile from the press and Zander was living at home rather than the halls of residence so neither of them was getting caught up with the normal student social life. I think Azzam saw Zander as a good influence and someone he could use to get away from uni, the press and all the other students who wanted to suck up to a wealthy prince.'
'That's horrible that he used Zander.'
'Hmm, maybe, but in my experience that's pretty common. It didn't take many visits to our humble abode though before he actually started to enjoy the normalcy of family life. Hah! Not that you could call two eighteen year olds looking after two twelve year old girls - without any clue as to what they were doing - normal. Four youngsters who were still grieving for the loss of their parents and their old life, who were muddling along together. I think the one thing that Azzam found with us was love - no matter what we'd been through and how we struggled in the early days to establish a family routine, there was always a lot of love in the house. I think Azzam envied us that.'
Wistfully, she said, 'I'm sure many people would.' Before Matt could call her on that remark, she continued. 'You lived on the school grounds, didn't you? You couldn't call that humble surely?'
Matt stared at her. 'You obviously never explored the complete grounds! Didn't the girls ever talk about our home life once they'd stopped boarding?'
Ella shook her head as she started on the lobster dish. 'Mmm, this is divine. Is that lemongrass I can taste?'
'Aha. The velouté has lemongrass and chervil in it. You've either got good taste buds or there's too much lemongrass in it.'
'Mmm no, it's perfect as it is.' She went on to answer his question about his sisters at school. 'Tess and Ronnie kept to themselves a lot more after your parents died. We'd had great fun in the six years we'd roomed together but once that stopped, I only really saw them at break times. They kept everything surface, never let anyone get close, not even me. That hurt a bit.' Before she could take a trip down memory lane, she changed tack. 'The properties that were on the school grounds were all quite big weren't they? I remember some of the staff lived in them and Mr Brown's was lovely.'
'Ah, but he was the Head, you'd expect his house to be nice. We'll forever be indebted to him for giving us somewhere to live so we could stay together, but the place we lived in was a small, two bedroom cottage at the north edge of the grounds, which had lain empty for about three years. Eugh, I can still see the peeling wallpaper and smell the damp! Downstairs had a small kitchen, a living room and a tiny box room that Zander used to study in. Upstairs we had the two bedrooms and a bathroom. I can see the look on Azzam's face even now, the first time he saw it. I think his words were 'we wouldn't let an animal live in these conditions in my country!' One weekend he sent his security detail over to us with a load of paint pots and ordered them not to return until the whole place had been decorated.' Matt laughed at the memory.
'He didn't go and help himself?'
'Lord no! You've met him now - does he strike you as someone who would get down and dirty?'
Ella smiled. 'No, I suppose not. He's certainly good at getting people to do more than they expected!' During her earlier meeting with him she had discovered she would be playing Friday night for a party of two hundred people, at the main event on Saturday when five hundred people would be present and then again Sunday evening for a small, select group of a hundred!
'Yeah, sorry. I forgot to warn you about that. I guess Azzam only mentioned Saturday to you originally? Have you got enough notice to plan the content for three events?'
She nodded. 'I'm going to modify the content of a few of my recent concerts.'
'He expects people to cater to his every whim and fancy but he's loyal to those he trusts and generous beyond measure. He didn't just get the cottage painted, he kitted it out too with top of the range stuff.'
'He saw you as a charity case? How did that make you feel?'
*
Ella waited for Matt's answer as Kasib placed a further selection of dishes in front of them. 'Right, try the fish first before the meat dishes.' Once the waiter had left Matt continued.
'Pissed. But the girls were just so happy with it all. So we sucked up our pride and accepted it. Just as we did in honouring our agreement with Mr Brown about staying at the cottage. He let us live there for a token rent so long as we worked at the school for free. We took a lot of jeers for that, so too did the girls I think, although they never said anything. We certainly learnt who our friends were in those days: Mr and Mrs Brown, who kind of became substitute parents, but more in a guiding capacity than an interfering one; and Azzam, who took it upon himself to make our lives easier under the guise of providing comfort for himself any time he chose to hang out with us - which he did a lot. Everyone else found reasons to stop getting in touch.'
Ella felt her heart constrict for what they must all have gone through.
'Now don't go feeling sorry for us.' Ella looked at him, puzzled. 'You have a very expressive face.'
'Oh.' Ella let the comment go, completely absorbed by his story. 'What about that woman at the funeral? Didn't she help?'
Matt looked at her blankly.
'There was a woman at the funeral - looked a bit like Cruella de Vil. I think she tried to take the girls away but Mr Brown came along.'
Matt's eyebrows drew together. 'How do you know about her?'
'I was there.'
Now the eyebrows shot up. 'You were? I didn't see you.'
Ella laughed at that. 'Matt, I was completely invisible to you when I was a child. I was just another of the annoying girls you couldn't escape from quick enough!'
Matt laughed. 'Hmm, well… I do remember Zander and I being very relieved to get back to our dorm any time we went to see the girls.' His expression hardened. 'The woman you saw at the funeral was our father's sister - our aunt. I don't know what you heard….'
Ella shook her head. 'Nothing really.'
'… well she thoroughly disapproved of our mother and all of us. I don't know what Mr Brown said to her but we never saw or heard from her again.'
'Matt, that's such a shame.'
'Not really. We'd rarely seen her up to that point anyway. The girls would have been miserable if they'd gone to live with her.'
Ella looked at him in admiration. 'I wonder what she thinks about you all now - she must have an idea unless she never reads the papers or watches TV. You've all done really well for yourselves - moving from that small cottage to the big estate. You're all successful at what you do and you're catering for celebrities and royalty, as well as appearing on TV. All in the space of fourteen years. I'm in awe of what you've achieved Matt.'
Matt smiled at her. 'Well, there was some luck in there, but I won't deny there was also a lot of hard work and times I could barely face another day. As Zander went to university, the bulk of the work at the school fell to me in term time, along with coping with the girls. In the summer holidays I tended to leave Zander to it a bit more and took off to France and Spain to learn as much as I could from any restaurant that would employ me. But looking back on that time, we did have some fun and the whole experience has made me the person I am now. I know if I can survive what we went through, working endlessly, scraping to balan
ce the books every month and coping with two teenage girls, I can cope with pretty much anything life has to throw at me. I've also learnt that you need to grasp the moment.'
He paused and deliberated what to say. 'I know this is probably not the right thing to say but… losing our parents… brought us all closer. We've become an incredibly tight family unit because of what we've shared. With hindsight, I'm not sure I would change any of that.' Voicing that was enlightening and although he should feel guilty for doing so, he didn't.
Matt gave Ella a thoughtful look.
'I've never shared that thought with anyone else. In fact I've never spoken about myself so much with anyone else. What are you doing to me Ella?'
Ella stayed silent and looked away for fear she would give herself away. His comments warmed her, although she wasn't sure they meant anything.
The rest of their meal was spent discussing each dish as they sampled them.
Ella had loved everything. The only contribution she'd made to making them any more perfect was to suggest a little more ginger in the ice cream.
'Mmm, I couldn't eat another thing. Everything was absolutely delicious Matt. Azzam must surely be very pleased with what his guests will be served over the three days!'
'He generally is, despite the mumbling and grumbling, which I'm sure is more to wind me up than anything else! So, which main course did you like the best?'
'I think the beef fillet. The meat just melted in my mouth and I loved the way the bone marrow sat in the mash potato to look like a real bone full of marrow. And before you ask, the rose soufflé with the caramelised petals and wild strawberries was by far my favourite desert.'
'Well, thank you for that, but I actually want you to decide which desert is going on Sunday's menu. If you were paying attention, there were four deserts there but I only have three meals. I'm definitely serving the caramelised pear with chocolate praline and ginger ice cream on Friday and I think I'll do the rose soufflé on Saturday, but I can't decide between the other two. So….' Matt indicated to Ella to make a decision.
Ella looked at him helplessly and groaned. 'How can you expect me to choose between them? They were both chocolatey, sweet and sharp in their own different ways.' Matt continued to just look at her, waiting for her decision.
'Aargh, you're cruel!' Ella put her head in her hands.
She eventually looked up. 'Okay. The gateau. No! The chocolate fondant. Yes, definitely the fondant. It had lovely textures between the soft fondant and crunchy honeycomb and the pear sorbet was really light and refreshing. The gateau might just be a bit too much after a rich meal.' Ella looked pleased with herself.
Matt continued to stare. Ella was so much on his wavelength it was scary.
And there it was. The sexual tension that thrummed between them, was back.
Ella felt the heat change. 'Um, I'm dead on my feet. I think I'll call it a night.' She stood to go.
Matt stood at the same time and pulled her into his arms. Before she knew what was happening, he lowered his head and kissed her. It tasted chocolatey from the deserts and cool from the sorbet. Ella sighed as she parted her lips and let the kiss go deeper.
Matt thought he might explode if he didn't have her in his bed soon. He'd never felt such a burning need with a woman as he did with Ella. She felt good in his arms - her lips soft under his. His erection became almost painful as Ella kissed him back with an intensity that matched his own.
'Ahem.'
Chapter 8
Ella wondered why Matt had relaxed his hold on her and ended the kiss.
'Do you want the petit fours Matt?'
Matt looked up. 'Er no Kasib. Nothing more. Please thank Sharif for me and tell him I'll speak to him in the morning.'
Matt cursed Kasib's interruption and his own sense of timing. A kitchen full of staff he worked with was no place to make out. He felt Ella stiffen in his arms and knew he'd lost her again.
'That's the second time I've been oblivious to other people Matt!' She looked up at him with a worried look on her face. 'What will he think?'
'He won't think anything. We were just kissing Ella.' Well it might have been on the verge of being more than that but he wasn't going to spook her. He'd never put on such a public display before - he guarded his privacy no matter what the tabloids tried to suggest. Somehow Ella caused his control to fly out the window.
He took her by the hand. 'Come on, I'll show you to your room, before we do something we'll both regret.'
Ella felt a sharp stab of hurt to her heart at that comment - why would Matt regret it? Was she mistaken in what she thought Matt wanted?
Matt left her at her door, wished her sweet dreams and told her that although he'd be busy, he would catch up with her sometime the next day.
*
Ella sighed as she lay by the pool in the late afternoon sun.
She'd amazingly slept until ten o'clock that morning, when a maid had awakened her with a cup of coffee and a small Middle Eastern breakfast. The bed was the most comfortable bed she'd ever slept in. Just the thought of it had her snuggling further down into the sun lounger. She might have had a lazy start to the day by the time she was ready to sit at her piano but she'd then made up for it. She'd lost all sense of time practicing and deciding on her pieces and the order they would be played in so they flowed naturally into one another. In fact she hadn't realised how late it was or how stiff she'd become until the same maid had brought her a light meal in the afternoon.
Satisfied that she'd done enough for one day, the silence in the suite had started to close in on her. Having started to go stir-crazy she'd eventually donned a swimming costume, put a sundress over the top and gone looking for the pool. When she'd started to recognise the same tapestry hanging on the wall she realised she'd been going round in circles so she'd exited through the first external door and hunted down the pool from the outside. No sooner had she arrived than a servant had presented her with a pitcher of juice and a glass. That had been a bit eerie as she imagined someone watching her the whole time, laughing at her disastrous attempt to leave the building.
As her body relaxed under the sun's heat, Ella's mind started to float from a conscious to an unconscious state. She felt as if she was floating towards the warmth, hovering on the edge of oblivion.
'It's alright for some lying around in the sun all day!'
Her body jerked as she came back to reality with a bump. She cursed the interruption to the mental state she'd sunk into and opened one eye to look at him.
'I'm straightening out the kinks of a busy day.'
Matt laughed. 'Is that what it's called? And there's me thinking you were sunbathing!'
He lay out on the lounger beside her, took a swig of her drink and closed his eyes.
'Aah, that's better. If I'd stayed in that hot kitchen a moment longer I swear Quinaard would have been looking for a new ruler.'
At that, Ella opened both eyes and sat up. 'What's happened?'
'Azzam is what's happened. There we were with five hundred portions of chocolate petit fours, newly decorated with gold leaf ready for Saturday and in he waltzes demanding to see everything we've done so far. After the usual close inspection, tasting and face pulling, he announces everything to be 'okay'.
''Okay!' These dishes don't just magically appear. They can take weeks, sometimes months to be conceived and perfected! I spend hours being open to the surroundings and the event and the people attending. He's paying me a fortune for my creativity and culinary skill and all he can say is 'okay'! We've all been in the kitchen since six this morning and prepared the most exquisite food, that's far too good for most of the people he's invited, and that's the best he can say. Just as I'm trying to swallow something I might regret he looks at the petit fours and decides he wants traditional Turkish delight instead! I swear, he was this close,' Matt put his thumb and forefinger a couple of millimetres apart, 'to being throttled. He then had the audacity to laugh at the look on my face.'
Matt shoo
k his head and opened his eyes to find Ella looking across at him with concern. He reached up and caressed her cheek with his hand. 'You're balm for my soul. Thank you for letting me rant.'
'I'll collect my fee later.' She smiled at him.
Matt's gaze bore into her. 'And just what would that be? I know what my fee would be, what's yours?'
Ella realised she'd walked into that one and went to stand. 'I'd… better get out of the sun.'
Matt grasped her hand and pulled her across to share his lounger. He shuffled over to accommodate her, silently thanking Azzam for supplying furniture on the same grand scale as the palace.
'I'll pay up now.' And with that he kissed her - as gentle a kiss on her lips as the sun's rays had felt on her body. Her lips parted and Matt sought entry, his tongue reaching out to hers. Instinctively she placed her hand up by his neck and caressed his hair. Matt's hand glided down her body and over the swell of her hips. He fought his reaction to plunder, his lips and tongue a mere gossamer touch to hers. Somehow it felt more erotic than a fast, passion filled coupling. As he felt the sun's heat soothe his aching muscles, the feel of Ella's lips under his and the smooth silkiness of her mouth relieved the rest of his stress. Knowing he was close to losing his control, Matt pulled away, caressing the side of her face as he did so. He looked down at her, noticing the glazed look in her eyes as she looked up at him.
'I can't keep my hands off you,' he whispered. 'What are we going to do about this attraction between us?'
'I don't know.' Ella's throat felt parched as she just managed to get those three words out. She went to pull away but Matt stopped her.
*
'Stay, please Ella.' Matt tightened his hold on her. 'I promise not to explore whatever this thing is between us, but I'd like you to stay. I like the feel of you in my arms.'
Ella settled back down and laid her head on his chest. She was thankful now that she'd resisted the earlier urge to remove her sundress and lie in her costume. Lying here with Matt, she felt dressed and not naked as she would surely have felt had she removed her dress. Whilst she wasn't used to lying with a man, she had to admit that being here with Matt felt wonderful.
Heat in the Kitchen Page 10
