The Calling Read Online Free

panty-melting smile of his flashed as he ordered a drink. She knew he'd asked for a beer without even hearing him. Bud Light in a long neck bottle, ice cold. That's how he liked them.
    She sighed and leaned back in her seat. Why the man still affected her like she was a teenager with a crush was beyond her. Just the sight of him made her want to throw herself at him and damn the consequences. The fact he'd thrown her away like yesterday's garbage didn't even diminish the effect he had on her. Sure it hurt like hell but she couldn't get her fickle heart and her stubborn brain to agree on anything when it came to him. Asshole that he was, she couldn't stop wanting him.
    A young blonde slid into the seat next to him and he flashed her a smile that spoke of things she'd no longer have. It caused her stomach to cramp. Painfully. The girl said something to him and when he laughed and leaned down to whisper into her ear, Rayna turned away, staring down at the table. Eight months since he'd broken up with her and not a day went by that she didn't think about him and even though he didn't ever have a kind word for her, she searched him out just to see him. Being in this particular bar was proof of that. She was a glutton for punishment, apparently.
    She took a long sip of her drink and tried not to look back over at him, staring at the pictures in her hand instead. Maybe Malcolm's invitation wasn't such a bad idea after all. Bluff's Point was a small town and running into Garrett on a weekly basis was enough to cause even the sanest of people to go daft. Why she still wanted him after the way he treated her was a mystery she'd never figure out but watching him flirt with someone else tore her heart out.
    Glancing back over at him, and watching him laugh with the unknown woman, sealed her fate. She had to get out of this town. Away from him. Her heart could only take so much.
    Lifting Malcolm's note, she read it again and looked on the back of the pictures until she found the phone number. Grabbing her cell phone, she slid out of her seat and started for the back of the bar, trying to find a quiet place to talk.
    She didn't see Garrett's gaze follow her through the crowded bar.
     
     
    * * * *
     
     
    "Please tell me you didn't know she was going to be here?"
    "Of course he did," Chad said, laughing. "Why else would he be out on a Friday night?"
    "Fuck off, both of you," Garrett said, turning his head and staring down at the beer bottle in his hands. Like most Friday nights, he watched Rayna's apartment himself and usually did so alone, but the minute he saw her leave, dressed in tight jeans and a shirt that barely covered her ample breasts, he'd followed her to the same bar he'd met her in the night he ended up back in her apartment. He immediately called Chad. He knew if he walked in there alone and found her with someone, he'd lose it. His buddies were just there for protection.
    Protection for whatever asshole tried to make the moves on his girl.
    He was relieved to see her alone but he wasn't stupid enough to think she'd stay that way. Since the day he broke it off with her, he'd been waiting. Waiting for someone who wasn't him to get close to her. Someone who didn't insult her every chance they got like he did. Someone who could be with her and not get her killed, but much to his surprise, she hadn't seemed interested in dating again, which was just as well. He was sure half the town would know his secret if that ever happened. Regardless of how much control he had over his beast, the wolf would show itself to stake its claim. A claim he'd wanted to make the first time he held her, the first time she came with his name on her lips and caused the wolf to demand more.
    A claim he couldn't make without running the risk of infecting her.
    "Why don't you just go kiss and make up?" Chad asked. "It's obvious you want to."
    "Not that simple," Garrett said. "Besides, what I want doesn't necessarily mean I can have it."
    "And why is that?