A Rare Gift Read Online Free PDF

a prince and he’d fall madly in love with me and carry me away to his huge castle where we’d marry and have children and live happily ever after.”
    When he didn’t say anything, she turned to him and laughed, then pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “I was a big fan of Cinderella. ”
    “Obviously.”
    “And of course you’ve seen the house I grew up in. It wasn’t exactly a castle.”
    Yeah, he had seen the house. It was a two-bedroom, about a thousand square feet. Small, built in the fifties. Calliope’s parents still lived in the same house they bought when they were first married—the house her grandparents used to own.
    “My mom and dad never had a lot of money, but we had love and a sense of family. It was always enough.”
    “For you, maybe.” Not for Cassandra. She’d always bitched about wanting to get away from that cracker-box house, how much she’d hated it and how confined she’d felt living there. He’d often wondered if she spent so much time at his house—and with him—more as an escape than because she really cared about him.
    He wondered about a lot of things. Like why he’d built this huge house with everything Cassandra could have wanted—and she’d hated it anyway.
    Calliope must have sensed his thoughts, because she laid her hand on his arm. “You can’t change the past, Wyatt. You have to let it go.”
    “Yeah, well, it won’t let go of me.”
    She pushed off the railing and moved in front of him. “Maybe you don’t distract yourself enough. Put something in your head besides my big sister.”
    “Like what? Her little sister? That’s a little too close to home for me.”
    She tilted her head back, and instead of anger he saw the same bright-eyed smile she always wore.
    “You need to separate me from Cassandra. I’m not her.”
    No, she wasn’t. Cassandra always pouted. She was never happy, was always moody and the slightest thing would set her off.
    Wyatt had been nothing but rude to Calliope. So far, she’d been nothing but sweet to him.
    He brushed his fingers across her cheek. “You can’t be real.”
    She inhaled, her breasts rising. “I am real. And it’s about damn time you noticed me.”
    “Oh, I’ve noticed you plenty.”
    Her lips curved. “Have you? How?”
    “I notice you’re driving me crazy.”
    “Again. How?”
    The invitation was obvious. One step and she’d be in his arms. He wanted to taste her so badly he licked his lips. Her gaze drifted to his mouth, then back to meet his eyes. The tightening in his jeans was almost unbearable.
    It had been a really long damn time since he’d been with a woman. Hell, since he’d kissed a woman or touched one.
    This woman in particular made him crazy.
    And she was the wrong woman.
    He took a step back instead of forward. “I need to get back to the car.”
    He caught the flicker of disappointment before she replaced it with a smile. He’d hurt her and he hadn’t meant to. But he couldn’t be what she wanted. He wasn’t the man for her. She needed someone with an open heart, someone who’d appreciate her and be able to love her. Someone who wasn’t damaged and bitter.
    That wasn’t him.
    “Calliope.”
    “It’s okay. I need to get home anyway.”
    They headed downstairs. She grabbed her jacket from the counter and slid into it. If he were a gentleman he would have helped her with it.
    He didn’t feel much like a gentleman right now, and if he got too close to her she wouldn’t be leaving his house tonight. He’d have her naked and in that shower so fast her head would spin. And after he worked out some of the boiling tension tightening his insides, he’d never see her again.
    Yeah, not the right guy for her.
    He adjusted his jeans and followed her out into the garage. She turned around to face him, and he took that step back again.
    She noticed, and her lips curved.
    “I’ll see you later.”
    It wasn’t until she got into her car and pulled out of his driveway that he