I Spied on Them While I Cleaned the Hotel Suite

—Marina, do you have a second? Because I have to tell you something you’re not going to believe.

—Tell me, though the signal’s a bit bad, I’m coming in through the building lobby with the shopping. Talk, talk.

Marina wedged the phone between her shoulder and ear so it wouldn’t fall while she dragged the bags toward the elevator. Sabela was never one to exaggerate, so if she was starting off by saying Marina wouldn’t believe it, there had to be a reason.

—Look, I don’t even know where to start —she sounded wound up, almost out of breath between sentences—. You know this week I had to do the upper floors, right? The hotel suites, the ones for people with real money.

—You mentioned something about that, yes.

The elevator doors opened and Marina set one of the bags on the floor to look for her keys, twisting herself into an impossible angle so she wouldn’t drop the phone.

—Right, well. It was yesterday afternoon, me with the cart, cleaning like crazy, changing sheets, the usual mess but on a grand scale, because those rooms are enormous. I get to one of the suites at the back, there’s no “do not disturb” sign on the door, so I go in. Normal, right? And when I’m in the little entrance hallway I hear a sound like two glasses clinking together, a soft little “ting.” I froze, because I would’ve sworn that room was empty.

—Don’t tell me you went in to steal something.

—Shut up, idiot, listen.

Marina closed the front door with her foot and carried the bags to the kitchen. She set them on the counter and finally took the phone in her hand, putting it on speaker to hear better.

—The thing is, it was dimly lit, the blinds half down, and all of a sudden I realize someone’s inside. And you know me, I didn’t want to scare anyone. So I peeked in a little, just enough to put the sign back properly and get out. And then I saw them. At the far end, on the bed, a couple reclined against the pillows, each with a glass of champagne.

—And you were just standing there watching?

—Wait, it gets better. You could see the money on them from a mile away, both of them gorgeous. He had a swimmer’s back, all broad shoulders. And she had long, straight hair and full lips that made you jealous. Neither of them was over forty. I was going to turn around, I swear, but right then they started kissing.

—Oh, God.

—She raises her arm to stroke his face and the sheet slips down off her shoulder. And one breast is left out in the open, big, round, firm. I was frozen, Marina. I couldn’t move. They kept kissing, getting closer and closer, and he puts his hand on her waist and yanks her toward him. That’s when the sheet slips off him too, and I can see they’re both completely naked.

Marina felt something in her stomach, a kind of heat that was rising slowly. She braced herself against the counter.

—She laughs, takes the glass from his hand and stretches over him to set them safely on the nightstand. And when she stretches like that, he takes the chance to start kissing her neck. Slowly, like he’s savoring her. She lets out a little moan, falls onto her side, and he rolls over on top of her without stopping kissing her neck, the sheets tangling around their legs. Me, pressed against the hallway wall, barely breathing.

—And nobody saw you?

—No way, they were in their own world. She starts breathing harder, biting her lip, puts a hand on the back of his neck and guides his head downward, toward her chest. And she smiles with her eyes closed when he closes his lips around one of her nipples. I swear that, even though I was several meters away, I heard the moan that slipped out of her. And he was enjoying it just as much, if not more, from the little noises he was making. He took both her breasts in his hands and licked them one after the other without breaking eye contact with her for a single second.

—Sabela, you’re going to kill me.

—Well, hang on. Suddenly he gets down on his knees on the bed, puts both hands on her waist and lifts her with no effort at all, like she weighs nothing. He lays her on her back and lets her head hang off the foot of the bed. She says something to him, but they were speaking another language, Russian or German, hell if I know, I didn’t catch a single word. He doesn’t answer, just looks at her, smiles with that cocky attitude that drives me insane, and leans in to give her a quick kiss on the mouth.

—Jesus.

—I was dying to see his cock, but the sheets, all bunched up, were still covering it. Her, though, I could see all of her. Her hair spilling over the edge of the mattress, her arms flung out in a cross, her breasts spread across her torso. You could see her breathing going in and out so clearly, and it suddenly sped up when she felt her guy move down her belly with a trail of tiny kisses. He reached her pubis, which had hair but was neat, and the bastard, just when it seemed like he was going to eat her out, veered off and started kissing the inside of her thighs.

—What a son of a...

—Exactly. She says something between gasps and I didn’t need a translator to know it was a “please, enough already.” But instead of listening to her, he keeps kissing her thighs, her hip, her pubis again. And then, without warning, he grabs her legs behind the knees, pulls them apart, and runs his tongue from bottom to top, slowly but with a hunger that you could see on his face. Her arms went rigid all at once, she grabbed the sheets with both hands and let out a moan so loud I got scared myself and pulled the door almost shut, in case somebody came down the hall.

—And you stayed?

—Marina, that’s when I realized I was clutching one of my own breasts over my uniform. Without even thinking, just standing there in the middle of the hallway. Can you imagine the situation?

Marina swallowed. She wasn’t pretending to listen in the background anymore. She had slowly slid down until she was sitting on the kitchen floor, her back against the cabinet.

—Anyway —Sabela went on, oblivious to everything—, I peeked back out carefully and saw him already in full swing. He was tracing circles over everything with his tongue, parting her lips carefully, like he didn’t want to leave a single millimeter unexplored. She wasn’t holding back at all with the moans anymore. She arched her back in a rhythm, like it was a dance they’d rehearsed a thousand times. And me, standing there watching like a pervert, I swear I was empathizing with her. I needed him to stop messing around and get up there with his mouth already.

—I understand you perfectly —Marina murmured, almost voiceless.

—Well, he must have read both our minds, because he dragged it out for one more minute and, without warning, gave her a long lick and brushed her clit with the tip of his tongue. She couldn’t take it anymore, put her hand on his head and lifted her pelvis toward his face. And he started sucking her clit with renewed hunger, holding her by the hips so she couldn’t get away. I swear I could see her wetness shining on his chin.

—Stop, stop...

—He kept her like that for a good while, moaning at full volume, buried between her legs. But the thing is, he was moaning too, Marina, and that was what drove me even crazier, seeing him enjoy eating her out so much. Until she stopped him with a gesture of her hand. He froze for a second, not understanding, but then he smiled as soon as he got it. She sat up, put her hand on his chest with incredible boldness and made him lie back down.

—And did you finally see his...?

—At last. She grabbed the sheets at his hips and pulled them down. You should’ve seen him. He was so hard it sprang up the second she uncovered it. Unlike her, he was completely shaved, and he must have been going at full speed because even a drop was sliding down from the tip. She didn’t even give him time to react, she lunged at him. He lost his balance a little and ended up on his side, but she didn’t care, she grabbed the base and started licking him from top to bottom.

—I can’t take it anymore, Sabela.

—And the best part is that he, in that sideways position, lifts one of her legs and goes back to brushing her sex with his tongue. The two of them at once. She moved her lips up and down over him with astonishing familiarity, almost reaching his balls. They stayed like that, giving each other oral at the same time while lying on their sides. I had never seen anything like it in my life. Imagine what the atmosphere was like.

Marina closed her eyes. One of her hands had found its way under the skirt of her dress without her fully realizing when she’d started.

—When she decides she can’t take it anymore —the voice continued through the speaker—, she stops. She puts her hand on his pelvis and pushes herself up, leaving him flat on his back, and then she kneels over him. And with a cat’s elegance, she swings one leg over him. From where I was I couldn’t see properly, but when she screams and throws her head back, almost weak with it, I knew perfectly well he’d just driven it all the way inside her.

—Jesus...

—And right there, when she starts moving her hips back and forth, slowly, and he grabs one ankle and brushes the arch of her foot with his nose... right there I hear the damn elevator opening at the end of the hall.

—And what did you do?

—I slipped out of the room as quietly as I could, closed the door to give them their privacy, and calmly said hello to the two guests coming down the hall. But, Marina, I promise you I was burning up inside. I couldn’t wait to get off work and go home to Diego. Hey, Marina? Marina, are you listening to me?

***

For a while, Marina had been hearing her without listening. The phone was still on speaker on the counter, the shopping bags abandoned half-unpacked. She was on the kitchen floor, her dress neckline pulled down to her navel and her underwear around her ankles.

Her fingers were going in and out at a rhythm she could no longer stop. She wasn’t imagining the hotel couple. She was imagining herself in Sabela’s place, standing in that dim hallway, spying through the half-open door, holding her breath. She imagined the exact moment a gasp would escape her and give her away. And, above all, she imagined the couple turning their heads toward her, discovering her, with no anger at all.

With a smile that was an invitation.