Painted Blind (10 page)

“I kissed a mortal once,” he said. “She collapsed. Unconscious.” He stroked my arm. “I didn’t want to hurt you.” He chose his words carefully and spoke them with regret. “But this pain seems worse somehow.” It was possibly all the apology he could muster. After all, he was the ruler of a kingdom, a boy who’d grown up without parents. He answered to no one.

“Was she hurt?” I muttered.

“I don’t know. I fled.” Then he added, “I was only thirteen.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” I replied, the storm nearly drowning my words.

Erik put his lips to my ear. “We both know that isn’t true.”

I couldn’t keep my head from dipping toward him or my face from brushing against his. Carefully, he raised my chin and pressed his lips to mine. For a moment he paused, and I thought he’d pull away, but he drew me into his arms and parted my lips with his.

Something inside me burst, sending sparklers glittering through my body. His kiss overpowered me with a sense of perfect well-being and…
love
.

My grip on his shoulder slackened; my body grew weak. If I’d been standing, there’s no doubt my knees would have buckled.

“Psyche.” His voice was frightened.

I didn’t lose consciousness, but I was too weak to speak. All that came from my lips was a sigh. He pulled me to his chest muttering curses, some in English and some not.

The fog in my head parted. “I’m fine.”

“You nearly fainted,” was his sharp reply.

“It didn’t hurt.”

He pulled away. “Explain,” he demanded with all the irritated authority of the prince he claimed he wasn’t.

I tried, honestly, I did, but I could only manage a few flustered sentences and a single adjective.

“May I clarify this?” he said. “You nearly fainted because it was…”

“Wonderful,” I repeated, my voice stupidly dreamy. Maybe he didn’t believe me, but it was true. People were overwhelmed by pain all the time; somehow he did the opposite to me.

A mischievous laugh escaped him, and he drew me to his face. “Squeeze my arm when you start to go.”

I never understood the laws of attraction. Occasionally, I would do a double-take, catch a glimpse of some guy at a distance and feel the inherent need to see more of him, but on closer inspection, everyone was flawed, if not physically, in deeper, more significant ways.

Holden, for example, was the epitome of masculine beauty, but he was intolerably conceited. At our joint photo shoot, he was visibly pleased by my looks and made my skin crawl with every touch. At this he smirked, sure I was reveling in the pleasure of him, when all I wanted to do was run away.

Here in the dark, however, I came to understand that attraction had so little to do with sight. The brush of Erik’s skin against my arm made me shiver. From a single deep and unrestrained kiss flowed a thrilling tide that could take us under. Since I’d never seen him, he allowed me to see with my hands, which was so much more dangerous. I lay with my head against his shoulder and traced the ridges of his chest and abdomen with my fingers. He was a varied landscape, dips and valleys between mounds of muscle. My fingers slid up to his shoulder and over the bulk of his bicep. I wrapped my hand around the bulge and couldn’t make it halfway as he tightened his arm into a stone.

My fingers moved onto his collarbone and the dip of his neck, where his scent always drew me closer. When I raised my hand, he turned his chin away. “Not my face.”

I dropped my hand to his chest and drew my cheek across the hollow of his shoulder.

He raised up on his elbow and dumped me onto the pillow. “Is it my turn?”

“Definitely not.”

“You don’t trust me,” he said, more amused than offended.

I didn’t trust myself. It would be too easy to let the thrill of tonight run away with me.

He laid against the pillows, stretching his long arms over his head. “It’s just as well. You need to understand our marriage customs before you offer anything of yourself to me.”

“I thought I was the forbidden fruit. Isn’t it illegal to seduce a mortal?”

“Things are different now. You’re here, and you’ve worn my pendant. The counsel would frown on it. They’d give me grief, but…” He chuckled. “I’ve made a nuisance of myself with the dust. Mortal or not, they’d happily dispose of me to any woman.”

“You and your dust.”

“Me and my lust.”

“Present company excluded, of course.”

He snorted. “What
ever
.”

I yawned without meaning to.

“Are you sleepy?”

“How could I sleep through this ruckus?” The thunder and the rain still pounded an angry cacophony on the roof.

“Good, then let’s talk marriage.”

“Whoa, horsey.”

“In general,” he reassured me. “Did you notice Eudora’s pendant today?”

“The crest was the same, but the stones were different from the one you gave me. And she wore it around her neck because she’s married. Aeas told me.”

“Do you remember what stones were in the pendant?”

The largest was a sapphire. There was a center onyx and two side stones, but I didn’t remember what they were.

“One is an emerald and the other is an aquamarine. The crest represents the kingdom, and the gem cluster is a signature.”

“The woman in the fountain is wearing a different crest,” I remembered.

“It’s my mother. The crest on her pendant belongs to her husband’s kingdom. Every pendant in the kingdom bears the same crest, but each adult male has an individual gem signature. The signature Eudora was wearing belongs to my head shepherd. I had to purchase two hundred sheep from the neighboring kingdom to bring him here, but she wouldn’t have anyone else.” He rummaged around the pile of pillows and pulled down the covers. “Crawl under, it’s getting cold.”

“Not a good idea,” I protested.

“I told you, you’re safe with me.”

“Oh, but are you safe with me?” I teased.

Erik pulled the blanket over us. “Molest me. I dare you, but not until I finish explaining what would happen if you did.”

I faced his voice. “The pendant is a token of courtship. I get that.”

“A man presents his pendant to a woman and, while she wears it, no other man will try to court her. It would be dishonorable. Courtship is a public matter.”

I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that.

“Everyone in the village knows who is courting a girl by the gem signature she wears. They know the duration of the relationship by how long she’s been wearing the pendant. Their courtship would not be like dating in your world—two young people going off at night to date in private. Here they spend time together with their families, because if they are to form any serious attachment, the families must love and accept the new member.”

“I suppose that makes sense, but you don’t want to meet my dad.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t meet your dad. I just didn’t offer to let him see me.”

“Gee, I really think he’ll go for that, Erik.”

He ignored my sarcasm. “Back to our hypothetical couple. Before they marry, they need a home. The whole village gathers to build it, unless he has one that he’s inherited from his family.”

“Like yours.”

He grunted in disapproval either at my interruption or the mention of his inheritance. “When the home is complete, the man moves into it. They spend time alone now. Most likely she’d move into the home, too. One night they marry, and she begins wearing the pendant around her neck. Everyone knows they’re married because of the pendant.”

“What happens if she decides she doesn’t want to marry him?”

“Then she gives him back the pendant, and everyone knows it’s over.”       

“So, the ceremony is private? Just the couple and a priest?”

“No, Psyche. Just the couple. In this world, the consummation is a marriage contract.”

“
Oh
. That is different from my world.” Most the girls in my senior class would be married by that standard, including Savannah I suspected.

“So, if you seduced me tonight, you’d be my wife.”

That put a whole new spin on commitment. “I think I should go back to my own room.”

I felt him shrug. “If you want, but I meant it when I said you were safe here. It’s not something I take lightly.” He settled onto a pillow, fluffing it and getting comfortable. “Good luck finding your way back in the dark. And, don’t bang your toes on the foot post. It hurts.”

Just to prove I could, I climbed out of bed and moved toward the doorway, which I could barely make out in the dark. I went two steps and my foot hit solid wood. I yelped in pain.

“Foot post,” Erik murmured.

I clenched my teeth to keep from swearing. My toes throbbed.

He caught my wrist and pulled me onto the bed, then felt around to find my foot. “This one?”

I groaned a reply, and he rubbed the wounded toes.

“I should take you home in the morning,” Erik said softly. “Stay with me until the storm blows over.”

“You’ll be here in the morning?”

“Silly mortal.” He tickled my foot. “I’ll be waiting for you at the portal.”

Chapter 9

A flood of light pulled me from deep sleep. I moaned, shielded my eyes and saw Aeas opening the windows.

He spun around and gasped. Then he dashed out of the room mumbling an apology.

I sat up and rubbed my face. Here I was in a nightgown in Erik’s enormous bed. This looked bad.

My own clothes were in a pile in the other bedroom. I pulled them on and ran a brush though my hair before I ventured downstairs to the kitchen. The conversation I overheard was exactly what I dreaded.

“… so mesmerized he fell off the wall watching her. Then, this morning she was in his bed,” Aeas said quietly.

“It’s …” Eudora searched her knowledge of English to find the right word. “Sudden.”

“She’s mortal. Everything moves faster in their world.”

I stepped into the kitchen and made my defense. “It wasn’t what it looked like.”

Eudora turned away, and Aeas’s head dropped, so I could only see the crown of his head as he replied, “You don’t have to explain yourself to us.” He looked up tentatively. “Why are you wearing those clothes?”

“I’m going home.”

His eyes widened. “Now?” He seemed genuinely alarmed.

“I need to go back to school, and my dad worries about me a lot.”

“Eat,” Eudora prodded.

I thanked her and accepted warm biscuits and fruit. “I don’t suppose there’s a toothbrush around here that I could use?”

Aeas looked at me like I’d asked for a rocket ship. “What would you do with that?”

“Clean my teeth,” I answered, which was much nicer than the “Well, duh” I was thinking.

“Oh. He probably forgot to put one of these in your room.” Aeas went to the window and drew a potted plant from the sill. “We call it lover’s breath.” He scooted it across the table to me.

I looked at the plant and didn’t move. Somehow this was supposed to be the equivalent of a toothbrush.

Seeing my confusion, he explained. “You sleep with a leaf under your tongue. It cleans the teeth.” He took another bite of biscuit, then plucked a leaf from the plant and offered it to me. “You can also chew on them, but don’t swallow. They make a nasty stomach ache.”

“And, this keeps you from getting cavities?”

“What are cavities?”

“You know, rotten teeth.”

“Rotten teeth? You have those in your world?”

“I’ve got a whole mouthful of them.”

Aeas leaned closer. “They look fine.”

“Of course. I’ve been to the dentist.” At their confusion, I waved the subject away. “Never mind.” I popped the leaf into my mouth and chewed. It tasted like parsley, but fizzed and bubbled. Sort of reminded me of pop rocks—grass flavored. When I spit it in the trash, my teeth did feel cleaner, although I’d much rather have had mint-flavored mouthwash.

Aeas downed the last of his orange juice and stood to go. “Pixis is in the courtyard. Can’t you stay? This school of yours could wait.”

“But my dad can’t. If Erik lets me, I’ll come back.” I thanked Eudora for breakfast and turned to go.

When I was in the hall, I overheard Aeas mutter, “If he lets her? More like
begs
her.”

Eudora shushed him. “Don’t discourage them. He seems very happy.”

“Yeah,” he said flatly. “Let’s hope it lasts.”

After two days in Erik’s world, reality seemed stark and raw. The cold was more chilling than I remembered. Each honk and rev in the street rang louder than before. The sky seemed washed of color. Low clouds hung over miles of pavement, parking lots and commercial buildings, all individually painted, but somehow blending together in a sea of blah. It unnerved me. Never in my life had I thought Montana was ugly.

I found my cell phone and dialed my dad’s number.

He answered on the first ring. “Where are you? I was starting to worry.”

“I’m on my way to school. I didn’t have service at Erik’s place, so I didn’t get your messages.”

“The crowds are gone and there haven’t been any more vans parked outside the house. The school hasn’t seen them either.”

I turned into the high school parking lot and had to drive to the far end before I could find an empty slot. “I’m here, and I’m late, so I’ll call you later. Okay?”

“Sure. See you tonight.” There was a nervous edge in his voice. Dad had never had to deal with a boyfriend before. It was new territory for both of us.

After checking in at the office, I made my way to class. I spent the day paranoid. I avoided the crowded hallways and was late to every class. By last period my shoulders were strung tighter than a guitar, and I had a headache.

In art I managed to relax a little. When I asked Mr. Mayhue how to make up for the days I’d missed, he went to his cabinet and began rifling through the mess.

“We are moving into charcoal,” he said. “You need to turn in four sketches by the beginning of next week.”

“What kind of sketches?”

“Yours. Original.”

“Doesn’t matter if they’re landscape or still life or whatever?”

“Whatever.” He found the box of charcoal pencils he was looking for, and handed one to me. “As long as they’re fully developed and properly shaded.”

Mr. Mayhue was my kind of teacher. I slid into my seat and began sketching the still life on the front table. Since he’d given me the weekend, I might be able to do my drawings in Erik’s world, which put a bright spot on this miserable day. Narrowing Erik’s world into four sketches was impossible. I was struggling with a lopsided apple on my paper when the bell rang.

I dumped my pencils into my backpack and headed for the door. The crowd thinned quickly. Students slammed their lockers and hurried out the nearest exit, but standing still and oblivious to the crowd were Travis and Savannah.

She shook a crumpled piece of paper at him. “Six months and you scribble a note saying it’s over. Don’t you think I have the right to hear it face to face?”

He shrugged, his answer quiet. “I need a break. It was fun while it lasted.”

“It was
fun
?” Savannah’s expression hardened. “I wish you would have told me in June that all I was to you was
fun
.”

He reached for her. “Savannah.”

She jerked her arm away. “Go to hell.”

Travis bit his lip. He mumbled something too low to hear.

Savannah shook her head. “Whatever.” She stood there shell shocked, as he walked away. Then her jaw tightened. She looked up and saw me. Her lip quivered. I reached for her hand.

“No,” she warned. “Just get me out of here.”

I grabbed her purse and backpack from the ground and pulled her by the arm toward the door. By the time we reached the parking lot, Savannah ran without my help. We dodged traffic to the far end of the parking lot, where my Subaru sat alone. I unlocked the doors, dumped our junk in the back seat and shoved the key into the ignition. Savannah dropped into the passenger seat and slammed the door. By the time I pulled onto Main Street, tears threatened her eyes.

“I loved him,” she murmured.

“I’m sorry, Savannah.”

“I knew it was coming …” She stared at her open hands in disbelief. “I meant nothing to him.”

I drove to my house and sent her to my room while I rummaged through the kitchen for comfort food. Mascara drew wicked lines down her face as I sat beside her and tore the lid off a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.

Without saying anything, she took a big scoop and skimmed off the top with her lips. Her gaze fixed on the carpet, faraway as her thoughts. “He told me he loved me.” She blinked, as if seeing those intimate moments flash across her mind. “I wanted to believe him, but I always wondered. I was so afraid to let myself love him.”

I understood that more than I wanted to admit.

“He used to compliment me every day, then one day he just stopped. It was like I stopped being pretty to him. Then he got a little farther away every day.”

“You didn’t change, Savannah. He did.”

She nodded. “The harder I tried to pull him back, the farther away he got. There were so many times I wanted to talk to him, but I wanted more of him than he was willing to give. And I was so stupid. I tried to give him everything he wanted.” She forced a bitter laugh. “So stupid.”

“Everyone makes mistakes,” I said softly. “I’m the queen of stupid mistakes. At least yours isn’t hanging over Main Street.”

She laughed and sniffed the tears away. “It’s beautiful, though. You look really good in it.”

I shook my head. “I never wanted anyone to see it. Now it’s national news.”

Savannah took another scoop of ice cream. “When you ran away, Erik hid you?” There was a suspicious note in her voice. “I want to meet him.”

“I don’t know…”

Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t try to fool me. You say he’s too shy to be seen with you. I don’t believe that. What’s really going on?”

“He’s different than most guys,” I replied. It would be impossible to explain all the ways he was different.

She looked hard into my eyes. “Different in an imaginary friend kind of way?”

My mouth fell open. “You think I invented him?”

Savannah leaned back on her elbows. “Prove you didn’t.”

I slowly reached for my cell phone, only to realize he’d never called it. The only time he called me, it was on our home phone. “I don’t have his cell number,” I said, which I realized sounded completely stupid. If I was dating a normal guy, of course I would have his number.

“Then call him at home.”

“It’s clear up in the mountains. There’s no service up there.”

“Uh huh.” She nodded. “And I bet you don’t know when you’ll see him again, but tomorrow you’ll come to school and say he mysteriously dropped by.”

“Actually, he’s supposed to drop by tonight.”

“Great,” she said. “I’ll wait.”

I felt my heart drop into my belly. If she stayed, he wouldn’t come. She’d think he didn’t exist, and I wanted to be with him more than anything.

When my dad came home a few hours later, Savannah and I were hanging out in my room with the stereo blaring. He pushed the door open a few inches and squinted at that noise.

“Did you miss me?” I yelled over the music, then turned it down.

“Less now than before. Hi, Savannah.”

“Hey, Ron. What’s for dinner?”

He scratched his head waiting for inspiration to hit. “How about grilled chicken with a mushroom Alfredo sauce and pasta?”

Savannah squealed with delight. “Can I marry you?”

“Gross!” I threw a pillow at her.

Dad turned to go. “Dinner in half an hour.”

When the phone rang in the middle of dinner, Dad and I looked at one another. He slowly reached for the phone and checked the caller ID. “Unknown name,” he said. “Could be a reporter.”

“Could be a contractor calling to offer you a million-dollar job,” I replied.

He smirked and answered. His expression turned suspicious. “May I tell her who’s calling?” Then he held the phone across the table. “Erik.”

Savannah jumped from her chair and grabbed the phone before I’d put my fork down. “Hi, Erik,” she said sweetly. “This is Savannah Schofield, Psyche’s best friend. I was just telling her today how excited I am to meet you. She said you might be stopping by.”

Dad wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Really? I’d like to meet him, too.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Savannah said. “Another time, then. Yes, it was nice talking to you, too.” She held the phone out to me, and turned to Dad. “He’s working late and can’t make it tonight.”

I grabbed the phone and headed into Dad’s office, where I shut the door before answering. “Erik?”

“You have company.” He sounded disappointed.

“Yeah, sorry. She wants to meet you and decided to stay until you showed up. Where are you?”

“Nearby. Mind if I sneak in later?”

I looked out the window, and wondered how near he really was. “It would make my day.”

“School was that bad, huh?” He chuckled. “I feel your pain. My mother visited today.”

“Your mother visiting is as painful as a building full of teenage boys?”

“Worse.”

Nothing would make me happier than being near him. “Call me when you’re here, and I’ll take out the garbage or something.”

“Unnecessary,” he replied lightly. “I’ll surprise you.”

After he hung up, I sat with the phone in my hands and a smoldering hope in my chest. Trying to look disappointed, I returned to the dining room, where Dad and Savannah eyed me curiously.

“So?” Savannah prodded.

“He has to work. Are you satisfied?”

She finished her last green bean and wiped her mouth. “For now.”

Dad stood with his empty plate. “I still want to meet him.”

I rolled my eyes, but Savannah leaned closer. “Sexy voice. Does he always sound like that?”

“Yeah.” His voice was nothing compared to the feel of his arms. His kiss.