Chapter 1
From the very moment that Joyce Wilson arrived at the discotheque, a number of searching male eyes focused on her tanned, well-proportioned body.
Even though Joyce was just a young girl Df seventeen, nobody would have known it at the darkened discotheque that she was visiting. She liked the intensity of the periodically flashing neon lights and the sounds of the loud rock combo that was playing in the crowded, slightly stuffy discotheque.
Joyce was wearing a sleek, white, calf-length dress which brought out the curvaceous lines of her infatuating, young figure. The fact that she had been lying out in the warm Caribbean sun for a period of a little better than a week made her look all that much more appealing, the dazzling contrast of her stunning brown face, arms and legs set off against the shimmering strands of her radiant blond hair.
She had been staying at a lavish hotel with her folks in the Paradise Island section of Nassau in the Bahamas. Her parents, in addition to soaking up sun and doing more than their share of sipping cool, tropical alcoholic drinks, were doing a good deal of gambling in the casino which was an inherent part of the hotel complex.
Even though Joyce was a very much sheltered girl in a number of respects, having been very closely cared for by her wealthy parents, she nonetheless liked occasionally to go out and dance. She had been admonished many times, however, by her parents as to the dangers of just picking up with anyone. They had informed her many times that girls who take too many liberties as teenagers eventually have to suffer later on in life when men are unwilling to take them seriously.
Joyce did her best to follow the dictates laid down by her parents, and as a result she was a virgin at a time when some of her more permissive young girl friends were engaging in a good deal of sex.
She recalled just several weeks earlier, not long before she left with her folks on the Nassau vacation, when one of her girl friends had suggested a double date. While on the date, the girl friend had suggested that the two couples curl up in the automobile seats and have sex. Joyce immediately objected, prompting her girl friend and the two young men to chide her for being a prude.
"If that's being a prude, then I'm sorry," Joyce had crisply responded. "As a matter-of-fact, I'll walk home now. I don't care. I'm just not going to get involved."
"Don't tell me you're a virgin," the young man who had designs on her body had said with a tone of incredulity.
"I most certainly am," Joyce replied proudly.
"I don't believe it," the young man said, shaking his head in frustration. "Such a beautiful chick and such a great body. All that going to waste."
"I don't call it going to waste," Joyce replied tightly.
The two young men had huddled briefly, thereupon deciding that they had better take young Joyce home. The following day at school Joyce's girl friend chastised her for missing out on a good time.
"I took on both of them later," she declared. "And to think that you could have been in on the fun. You silly girl. You don't know what you're missing."
"Maybe I do," Joyce snapped.
"With that attitude, you're gonna be an old maid."
"I'm only seventeen. There's no reason to push it."
"You'll be sorry. You're missing out on loads of fun," her girl friend laughed.
This particular evening Joyce became so bored just standing, around the casino watching her parents play roulette that she desired to do a little adventuring on her own. She excused herself, telling them that she was going for a walk and would see her parents later in their rooms.
She knew down deep that she was only going to walk as far as the discotheque, which was also a part of the vast hotel complex. There she would have some fun dancing, then would return to her room. Joyce knew that if she told her folks the truth that her father might very well worry. After all, she was underage, and people were not supposed to be allowed into the discotheque if they were under twenty-one years. In addition, she felt that both of her parents would be worried about the possibility of a fresh young man trying to make a move toward her. That prospect didn't really bother Joyce. At school she had astutely developed a procedure for getting rid of even the most persistent young men. She recalled how many times that young men ever so sorrowfully pouted whenever she walked by, regarding her as a hopeless case because she would not make the same kind of compromises that her girl friends would.
Immediately a tall, husky man in a multi-colored sports shirt walked over toward her. She could tell from the kinky grin on his face and from the wild look in his eyes that he would not be a safe bet.
"Hi, beautiful, how about a dance?" he asked.
"No thank you," she declined tactfully, smiling apologetically as she sat at a table alone.
"Come on now. You and me could be quite a team. You look like a gal who's aching for a good time. You just need the right guy to put you into it."
"No thank you," she replied, shaking her head emphatically this time.
"Okay, so you don't know what you're missing," he snapped, walking away in a huff.
A young, slender man that she had seen at poolside for several days came strutting up to her table next. He leaned over and ever so quietly asked her for a dance.
"Yes, I'd like that," Joyce smiled.
She glided upward from her chair, then walked onto the crowded dance floor with the young man, whose eyes brightened as he stared into her radiant blue eyes.
They had not one dance but two, after which the young man returned to her table and asked if she wanted a drink.
"No thank you, I'm just nursing this Coke," she smiled.
"You ought to try something stronger," he grinned. "No thanks. The Coke is just fine."
"Listen, why don't we go somewhere where it's nice and quiet."
"But I like it here," Joyce explained. "That's why I came here, to dance."
"We could find someplace quieter to dance," the young man said.
"Like where?"
"Like the radio up in my room."
"No thank you," Joyce replied bitterly. "I'd appreciate it if you'd leave now."
"What the hell did I do?" he asked, stunned by her objection.
"I'm not looking for a bed partner. I'm just looking to have a good time dancing. Good-night."
"If you don't want any action, what the hell do you come into a place like this for?" the young man asked, jumping up quickly from the table. "It's ridiculous, downright ridiculous."
The young man became so angry that his hands trembled a little as he left the discotheque. Joyce shook her head and went back to sipping her Coke. She decided that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to go to the discotheque after all. It appeared that all she was going to run into were sex-crazy young men who had designs on her body and were looking for nothing more than a wild, one-night stand.
Just as she finished her Coke and was rising slowly from her chair, an innocent-looking, brown-haired, young man who couldn't have been any more than in his early twenties, walked toward her.
"I've seen what's been happening," he said, smiling as he talked in a soft, understanding tone, "and I can see why you're disgusted. These guys are mistreating you. How about one dance with a gentleman who's not gonna do anymore than just dance with you?"
Joyce appraised this smiling, young man momentarily.
"I can't believe it," she said. "You sound too good to be true."
"My name's Don," he grinned laughingly. "So how about that dance?"
"Okay, Don."
"And what's your name?"
"My name is Joyce," she returned his smile.
The combo stepped up its pace, moving into a series of rapid Calypso numbers that went over so well in the Caribbean. By the time that they finished, both Don and Joyce had broken into a considerable sweat.
"How about going out on the porch and getting a little fresh air?" Don asked. "It's warm and stuffy in here."
"Maybe that would be a good idea."
"Now's the perfect time, because the band's taking a break anyway."
Joyce's eyes focused in the direction of the bandstand. She observed the members of the combo, wearing their bright, luminous, short-sleeved Caribbean shirts, get up and walk en masse out of the room.
Since the suggestion sounded innocent enough to her, Joyce nodded, walking out toward the balcony with young Don.
She couldn't help but notice just how instinctively drawn she was toward Don. The big reason was that he was a gentleman. He was one man she felt safe around, and that made her feel extra good.
A cooling breeze blew in from the ocean as Joyce stood next to Don on the balcony. They were the only couple there and things were exceptionally quiet. Only the sounds of the flourishing activity at the casino one floor below separated them from total silence. As her hair began to blow ever so slightly in the evening breeze, Joyce closed her eyes for several seconds, intending to treasure the moment at hand. In just a few more days she would be back home in Long Island, and she wanted to carry with her as many beautiful memories as she could of the wonderful vacation she was enjoying in Nassau.
As she began to open her eyes, all of a sudden she felt two strong hands tugging at her mouth.
Instinctively Joyce attempted to scream, but the powerful man who was overpowering her had managed to prevent that by shoving his hands over her mouth.
At first she thought that only two hands were on her mouth, but soon she began to feel a certain soft substance like a handkerchief there. After that everything seemed to go blank. Her head began to spin and she became immersed in total darkness. Her knees and thighs went limp, and after that she could remember nothing....