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Painted Blind by Michelle A. Hansen
Seventeen years old and
agoraphobic, Psyche Middleton vows her dad will never see the risqué
photos she took during a summer modeling stint abroad, but one of them
ends up on a billboard in her Montana hometown. Now everyone—especially
her dad—can see it. And yet, somehow, those are the mundane things in
her life because she is about to fall unexpectedly, head-over-heels in
love with Erik, a mysterious young man who rescues her from a crowd of
admirers, and who she’s never actually seen because…he can make himself
invisible.
As strange as this may seem, it’s about to get even
stranger. Erik takes her to his palace in an idyllic kingdom, and she is
swept into the beauty and culture of his world, but his affection has
one condition: she may not see him. Overtaken, intrigued, and still
not wholeheartedly believing he’s real, Psyche is going to have to
decide if she can love him blindly; because if she can’t, she may lose
him forever.
About this Author:
Michelle A. Hansen was raised
in southeastern Washington. She earned her bachelor of arts degree in
English teaching from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and
taught high school English for six years. She and her husband have four
children.
Links:
Twitter: @michelleahansen
EXCERPT:
(The
Billboard Scene)
Traffic was painfully slow. Friday
would mark the beginning of Labor Day weekend, then a break in the tourist
season until snow fell thick enough for skiers. This week the sidewalks bulged
with shoppers, and not one parking space emptied as I inched east between the
brick buildings of old downtown. I parked behind the bank then walked along the
side street toward the front. I rounded the corner and froze.
A new billboard stood at the end of
the block. The perfume ad was a look-alike of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, and there in the center, beneath a waist-length
wig, was me. Stark. Freaking. Naked. On Main Street. I choked on my breath.
That one mistake, the one photo I swore my dad would never see was right there.
The photo didn’t show how my eyelid
twitched or that my armpits were dripping sweat. It didn’t show the
excruciating pain in my chest that made my arm numb. No, my face and body were
dusted with gold, and my fearful expression looked half innocent, half
seductive. A scream of panic pushed at my ears. My dad would see it. Every guy
in town would see it. Savannah would see it, too.
My lunch jumped into my throat. I
stumbled to a trash can and hurled.
Thunder cracked overhead. I looked up
and that’s when I saw the guy down the sidewalk staring up at the billboard,
hands on his hips. He spun around shaking his head, but he stopped when he saw
me. Even from a distance, he was dazzling. I felt his gaze like a punch in the
chest that struck suddenly and sent my pulse screaming. His eyes narrowed, and
in that momentary glance, he looked past the ratty jeans and oversized T-shirt.
He saw Venus, and it made him clamp his jaw tight and glare. Rain pelted the
sidewalk between us, but I couldn’t pull myself away until he turned and
disappeared around the corner.
Absently I walked into the bank,
unable to free my mind from the angry set of his jaw. I set an envelope of
Euros on the counter and saw surprise in the teller’s eyes when she looked at
my face. She made a quick glance out the window and back to me again.
“It’s not me.” My voice was
unconvincing. I studied the dark spots made by the rain on my shoes. I didn’t
hear her reply. My mind saw only the guy who hated me without even knowing my
name.
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