Pushing the soft white sheets aside, Sarita slipped her feet to the hardwood floor on the same side as the French doors, and then noticed the white nightgown she was wearing and paused to finger it with bewilderment. This was definitely not hers. She was the kind of gal who slept in an overlarge T-shirt and cotton panties. This too was straight out of an advertisement for honeymooning in paradise. Spaghetti straps dropped down to make up a piped and gathered neckline that barely reached above her nipples, and even then didn’t cover them well. The material was thin and sheer, offering cover to her breasts only because of the way the material gathered there. The silky material wasn’t presently gathered on her legs, however, and she could clearly see her tan legs through it and even the mole on her upper right thigh.
Standing abruptly, Sarita glanced around, relieved when she spotted a robe draped over a wicker chest at the foot of the bed. She hadn’t noticed it on her first scan of the room. Moving to the end of the bed, she snatched up the material and quickly shrugged her arms into it. A grimace claimed her lips, though, as she wrapped it around front and used the sash to tie it closed. The robe was as light and sheer as the nightgown, the neckline piped and gathered too and just as low as the neckline on the gown. They were obviously a set but weren’t meant for covering anything.
Muttering under her breath, Sarita took another look around the room in search of actual clothing, preferably her own. But there was no sign of luggage or even drawers that might hold her possessions.
Aside from the French doors leading outside, there were also three solid wood doors in the room, all painted white to match the walls. One of the doors was in the wall opposite the bed, beyond the wicker furniture. For some reason Sarita suspected it was the one that led out into the rest of the house or hotel this room was in. She turned away from it for now, unwilling to leave the room dressed as she was.
Her gaze slid between the other two remaining doors. Both were in the wall the bed butted up against, one on either side of it, in fact. The one on the side she stood on was open, and Sarita found herself looking into a large white bathroom.
Moving to the doorway, she glanced around and saw that the honeymoon theme continued here with a tub built for two and a large glass-walled shower you could have fit most normal-sized bathrooms into . . . or two people having crazy monkey sex. There was also a long white marble counter with two sinks, a separate smaller counter with a chair and large lighted mirror for doing makeup, and a door leading to an entirely separate small room that turned out to hold nothing but a toilet and a bidet.
Sarita peered at them and was suddenly aware that she had to relieve herself. Sighing, she quickly slipped inside to use the facilities, her mind racing. A plethora of questions were chasing each other through her mind. Unfortunately, she had no answers and her mind was just running around in circles in her head. Where was she? What had happened? How had she got here? Whose clothes were these? And how had she got into them?
Sarita wondered about that as she noted that even the panties she wore weren’t her own. A silky white thong was the only thing under the nightgown. Sarita did not wear thongs. She’d tried them once because they were so sexy-looking, but hadn’t been able to bear the feeling of having a constant wedgie. What the hell was going on? That seemed to be the question that kept drumming through her head. The last thing she remembered . . .
Actually, her memory was pretty fuzzy just now. She had some vague recollection of a lab and a corpse and some nonsense about vampires, but it was all so disjointed and surreal in her mind that she felt sure it was some fragmented nightmare she’d had. She also had something in her mind about worry for her grandmother, but, again, it was so fragmented and fuzzy she wasn’t sure whether it was real or a dream. For all she knew, what was happening right now was a dream too. Certainly she couldn’t afford a vacation in a place like this.
Panic tried to climb up inside her, but Sarita forced it down. She was a police officer, trained to control her automatic responses and assess situations before deciding the best way to respond to them. So . . . she would assess, Sarita decided firmly as she finished in the water closet.
Stepping back out into the large bathroom, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the sinks. The sight made her blink. Her black hair fell in wild abandon around her face and over her shoulders. It and her tan skin were an amazing contrast to the sheer white, flowing gown and robe. She looked like she’d stepped out of a gothic novel . . . or a porno, she thought with dismay, noting how her tan skin and the white thong she wore were revealed through the sheer cloth as she moved. Fortunately, the way the material gathered at the neckline helped hide her breasts . . . mostly.
Clucking her tongue with irritation, Sarita quickly washed and dried her hands, using the soap and fluffy white towels provided. Their presence made her start opening drawers and cupboards in the bathroom to see what they held. She found loads of soap, shampoo, conditioner, towels, and washcloths in the cupboards under the sink.
Lifting the makeup tabletop next, she found more cosmetics than a woman could use in a lifetime. There seemed to be every shade of lipstick, blush, and eye shadow ever created, all brand-new and with their wrapping intact. There were also various eyeliners, mascara, tweezers, nail files, and clippers, and so forth in the same packaged state, along with a hair dryer, several different curling irons, from flat to huge curls, and hairspray as well as various hairbrushes and combs. Basically, anything a woman might need to make herself pretty for any occasion.
Sarita stood still for a moment, simply staring at what was available as she tried to understand what all of this meant. The sheer sexy nightgown, the makeup, the big bed . . .
“No,” she muttered and then let the makeup tabletop drop as she whirled away to hurry out of the bathroom. The bedroom was still empty—that was all Sarita noticed as she rushed around the bed to the door on the other side of it. Her breath left her on a relieved sigh as she opened that one to find a walk-in closet stuffed with clothes and shoes.
Thank God! She could put on some real clothes and go find out where the hell she was and what was going on, Sarita thought. Her relief was short-lived, however. Within moments she was standing in the middle of the closet, forcing herself to breathe slowly.
The confusion that had assailed her on first waking had given way to anger as she’d gone through the closet. There wasn’t a scrap of her own clothing here, or at least, nothing she recognized as her own. Every single item hanging up was a negligee or nightie. There were various colors and lengths, from short skimpy blue baby dolls to long see-through crimson peignoirs, but every hanging item of clothing was some revealing nightwear suitable only for a honeymoon.
As for the drawers, they were full of thongs, stockings, and bikinis. There wasn’t even one bra. And those shoes she’d noticed on first entering? They were all stilettos, a rainbow selection of them, one to match every peignoir hanging up. They were sexy as hell and useless in her current situation.
Letting her breath out slowly, Sarita turned and moved back into the bedroom and then paused, unsure what her next move should be. Her gaze slid to the door she suspected led into the rest of the building . . . and possibly to answers, but Sarita found herself moving away from it. She had no idea what was beyond that door and after discovering all the negligees and baby dolls in the closet, she wasn’t sure she wanted whatever answers were waiting for her. But staying where she was didn’t seem a good idea either, Sarita decided as she bumped up against something and turned to stare down at the bed.
Her gaze slid reluctantly to the unknown door again, but then quickly shifted to the French doors instead. At least there she could see what she was stepping out into, Sarita thought and moved around the foot of the bed to the first of the three sets of French doors. Pausing, she peered out at the terrace and jungle, and then glanced as far to each side as she could from her position.
The terrace stretched out in both directions, left and right, the jungle bordering its length like a privacy fence. She also saw that there was wicker furniture outside, but she didn’t see any people around.
Sarita reached for the handle of the right door and turned it carefully, trying to be as quiet as possible. Once it unlatched, she eased it open and then poked her head out far enough to get a better look around. There wasn’t really much more to see than that the terrace ran around both corners of the building. Sarita couldn’t tell what might lie around the corner of the building to her left, but to her right she spotted the rounded end of an in-ground pool sticking out just past the building.