Montaine Read Online Free PDF

stretched taut as he perched on the end of the table and pressed
his arms backwards.
    The vibrant colors of his
tattoos stood out vividly against the dark fabric. He was inked from his wrists
to his shoulders. Another tattoo, which looked from afar like gnarled tree
branches, curled around the side of his neck. His jeans fit snugly over his
hips. I fought a surging hormonal impulse to stare blatantly at his perfectly outlined
crotch.
    He scanned the room with
a sharp eye. I tried to maintain an absolute stillness, not wishing to attract
any attention in the weighty silence, but my pen slipped clumsily from my
jittery fingers and clattered noisily onto the tabletop. It rolled over the
front despite my slapping attempts to control it and landed with a rolling
bounce and a clack on the tiled floor. I strained in vain to retrieve it with
the tips of my outstretched toes.
    Trent stared hard at me,
the corners of his lips turning upwards in an obviously amused smirk. He pushed
himself from his perch on the table, his hearty biceps flexing, and walked the
length of the room toward me. He bent low, his eyes fixed on mine, retrieved my
traitorous pen, and handed it to me with a conspiratorial wink.
    “Thank you.” My throat was
sandpaper dry. My voice sounded like a strangled croak. I was sure that my hot
cheeks were as red as a ripe tomato.
    “Welcome, everyone,”
Trent said with a booming base as he turned to the assembled staff. “You may
have noticed a new face gracing our halls since yesterday. I would like to
introduce Kat Raney, our summer intern.”
    All heads turned in my
direction. I gulped with anxiety and flapped my fingers in a feeble wave.
    “Say, I’ve always enjoyed
those fun getting-to-know-you exercises,” Trent continued with a sarcastic tone,
swiveling his body to face me again. “Kat, why don’t you tell us an interesting
fact about yourself. Something that we would never guess on our own.” He
watched me, blinking expectantly.
    “An interesting fact?” My
words were barely above a whisper.
    “Yes.” Trent shot me a
sly grin. “You know, an interesting fact. As in, a fact that would be of
interest to us.” I heard a few chuckles from around the room. “Do you have any
unique talents or hobbies? Do you play the marimba? Read Sanskrit? Can you
touch your tongue to your eyebrow?”
    More tittering and
chuckling erupted to my right and my left. I squirmed uncomfortably in my seat
and cleared my throat with difficulty, stalling helplessly for time while my
mind remained a complete blank. I grasped through the mental darkness for
something, anything that might be considered interesting.
    Suddenly, just as I
despaired of ever breaking through the embarrassed silence, I heard myself uttering
words beyond the control of my scrambling brain.
    “I’m allergic to nuts,” I
said weakly. Only when the words were out of my mouth did I realize the
magnitude of my mistake. I desperately wanted to snatch them back while they
hovered in the air.
    “Nuts?” Trent leaned on
one heel, crossed his arms over his muscular chest, and cocked one thick
eyebrow. The corners of his lips twitched with a stifled smile.
    “Yes.” I nodded
seriously. There was no turning back now.
    “What kind of nuts? All
nuts? Or just peanuts?” He grinned mischievously, an unexpected dimple just
visible under the stubble on his left cheek.
    “Just peanuts,” I
muttered limply.
    “Well, that’s a relief,”
he declared in a loud stage voice. “Fortunately, my nuts are not of the pea
variety.” The room exploded into a chorus of guffaws.
    “As for the rest of you,”
he said, turning to the smirking and giggling crowd, “please keep your nuts far
away from Miss Raney, and we should get through this summer just fine.”
    My face burned with
mortification from my pursed lips to the tips of my ears, which blazed scarlet
under the sweep of my neat bun. At that moment, if someone had given me the
option of crawling into a hole and