She was worried about the sex.
Oh, not the sex, really, Miranda thought as she turned to admire the fit of the pale green gown she'd chosen for the honeymoon. She was a virgin, after all. She'd made the decision to wait for marriage before indulging in what her sister Peg liked to called βthe delights of the flesh', and she supposed it was perfectly normal to have some...concerns about the whole thing. Still, Ed was certainly more experienced and she didn't want to disappoint him.
'Oh yeah', her mind mocked back. You mean you're worried that he'll disappoint you!'
Sighing, Miranda stripped off the long, gauzy gown, laying it neatly over a chair to wait for tomorrow night to do its seductive magic and climbing into bed wearing only a pair of black nylon panties. After switching off the light, she lay there tossing, unable to sleep and still not willing to admit--even to herself--that her subconscious was right.
She'd chosen Ed as her future husband despite the fact that he was 35 to her 26 and had a slightly receding hairline and what could be the beginning of a middle-aged paunch. Oh, he was tall and dark-haired and had beautiful, crystalline blue eyes and a wonderful sense of humor. He did work out a few times a week, so he wasn't really soft, exactly, just not muscle-bound. He was stable--financially, socially, emotionally. Certainly sexually. Oh, he might not be the roller coaster of sex, but he would at least be the merry-go-round. Dependable. Pleasant. And thinking about the ride didn't make her want to vomit, so that was a plus. She never was one for roller coasters anyway.
In bed, Ed would be exactly what he was out of bed: kind, considerate and always attentive to her needs.
You better hope Ed has more than a couple of inches between those thighs,' she could hear Peg's mocking voice echoing from the memory of her bachelorette party that had ended only an hour before. And you better pray he knows what to do with it'. Peg was a great one for advice. She'd gleefully given up her virginity at sixteen and hadn't wasted a single minute since. She'd been absolutely horrified when Miranda and Ed had announced their engagement. Peg lived by the βvariety is the spice of life' motto, and was sure Miranda had lost out, first by remaining a virgin and now by taking someone like Ed as her husband and bed partner for life.
"So," Miranda said aloud to the dark hotel room, Am I missing out?" Had she somehow missed the sexual boat by promising her body--forever--to someone like Ed? Someone who would fit her more like a comfortable old slipper than a sexy red stiletto? Peg certainly thought so. Predictably, her hot-blooded sister had hired a very energetic stripper for the party, and once Miranda had survived his bumping and grinding (practically in her lap, for goodness' sake, and no doubt all choreographed by her loving sister), Peg had whispered in Miranda's ear that "His name's Grant and he's yours for the night if you want him. He's already been paid...and tipped. Bet his private show's even better than the public one." Horrified that her sister would even suggest such a thing and secretly wondering about herself because she seemed to be the only woman in the room not apparently affected by Grantβs spectacular pecs, Miranda told her sister exactly what she could do with her stripper.
Which is probably exactly what Peg was doing right this very minute, Miranda thought sourly, while she was lying here wondering if she was about to make a BIG mistake. Rolling to her side, Miranda smiled at the vase of perfect red roses Ed had sent to her first thing this morning. Red, she knew, represented love, and his note had told her how much he loved her and how difficult it would be for him to not be able to see her all day, as they had agreed to remain apart the day before the wedding. Finally, remembering that one man's love was surely better than a dozen lovers, she fell into a fitful sleep.
She wasn't sure what woke her, but Miranda opened her eyes to a room full of pitch. The curtains, which she was certain she'd left open, were not only pulled tight, but something--a blanket, maybe?--must have been thrown over the big window, because not even a sliver of light broke the black void around her. She found herself thinking, then, that she must still be asleep, because only dreams were this dark and besides, she didn't think she'd started compulsively covering her windows while sleepwalking.
Then she became aware of something else. Air from the hotel heater puffed sluggishly into the room and over her breasts, teasing her nipples with a warm sigh. Her blankets were gone and she lay in the center of the big bed, wearing only her panties. And her arms, which she had thought simply stretched out above her head in sleep, refused to be lowered away from the vicinity of the headboard.
She'd been tied to the bed.
Terror slithered through her but Miranda held back a gasp of shocked awareness and the sob waiting to escape her throat. Instead she tried to be smart; tried to listen and determine if the someone who had done this to her was still here.
Still a threat.
A shadow in the darkness snagged at the corner of the limits of her vision and she opened her mouth to scream, only to have a large, warm hand slam over her mouth before anything could escape. The scream became nothing more than a high-pitched, terrified moan.
"Don't."
The voice seemed to come out of the darkness itself. The hand over her mouth was his only physical contact with her, despite the fact that she expected much worse--and very quickly. He surprised her by not moving for a long moment; she could hear his slightly ragged breathing, as if he were warring with himself about whether he should do this. The hand, she realized belatedly, was gloved. Not with latex or some other material designed to avoid forensic science, but in some thin, soft material designed to caress.
"I won't hurt you, Miranda."
She jerked in surprise and anger. How the hell did he--
"You want to know how I know your name."
When he paused, she heard a soft rustle of fabric and while he finished his explanation he replaced his hand with a silky length of material, effectively gagging her.