The door opened onto the enormous lobby of an ancient hotel. I decided to leave straight away, in the hope of finding a more private place, for I was naked and very keen to avoid being seen in a public place. But the commissionaire, with a pretense of courteous deference, pushed me firmly inside.
Through the glass entrance door I could see that the lobby was crowded. Elegant people came and went,
collected or deposited keys or messages at
the desk, chatted or read newspapers at round tables. I wanted to turn
back, but the commissionaire opened the glass door, took my arm I was sure everyone was looking at me. I didn't dare look up at anyone. For a while, I couldn't decide what pose to adopt, since I decided against the only reflex that came to me, to cross my hands over my sex. I'm sure this would have made me look more ridiculous. Without seeing anything around me, I walked with as much confidence as I could muster up to the desk, fixed my eyes on those of the receptionist and calmly asked him for a room. He gave me a cursory glance:
"Does Madam have no luggage?"
"Do you have a room, yes or no?" I insisted, impatient to get out of sight of everyone.
Around me people came and went, returned their keys, settled their bills . . . I tried to forget how incongruous and out of place I must took, naked in such a civilized old establishment.
Finally he gave me a key, stating with some embarrassment that it was the last vacant room, and asking if I was sure I wanted it. I gave my name for the register, then I escaped, refusing to be accompanied, gripping the key tightly in my hand, as if it were my last hope of survival.
I decided not to take the lift, in order to avoid the lift attendant and the proximity of other hotel guests, which would be particularly difficult to deal with in that confined cage. I had been given room 413. But the staircase stopped at the first floor. I walked down the corridor, which opened onto a whole network of other corridors, at the corners of which were signs indicating the direction of the rooms. Occasionally, a sign pointing towards the ceiling announced the rooms on the upper floors, numbers 200 to 484, but I had great difficulty in finding another staircase in this maze. I met with the same difficulty on each floor. After a number of detours, from one corridor to another and from one flight of stairs to another, I finally reached my destination, on the top floor.
It was a spacious room, with bare floorboards, old furniture and two large beds, all plunged in darkness. I didn't switch on the light or open the shutters, happy at last to be somewhere private. I double-locked the door and sought refuge between the sheets. Alone. Alone and naked in the warmth of a large, comfortable bed, in silence, with time before me in which I was totally free to dream, sleep, think . . . I gave myself up languorously to this delicious moment.
In my half-sleep, a throbbing erotic reverie took hold of me. I awoke with a start, feeling a mixture of fear and excitement. Lying in bed with my eyes wide open, it was some time before I accepted that these panting noises of love were really here in the room.
I sat up and peered into the dark all around me. Pressed against the door, a couple were embracing passionately. Tangled up together, exchanging kisses, they touched each other feverishly, which seemed to take them to the edge of ecstasy.
I was violently shocked by the scene which, at that precise moment, set off a whole host of diverse and contradictory sensations and feelings in me that I was unable to unravel. From this chaos in my mind and body only one question emerged: how had they been able to enter, since I had locked the door? And I put this question to them. They turned towards me, opened the door and, without saying a word, with perfect placidity and precision, they left.
I stood up, ran to the door, which I too opened, in order to look into the corridor. Nobody there. I double-locked it again and went back to bed. Now I regretted having chased them away with my harshness. When they had looked at me, for a moment only, I had seen in the dark two faces full of gentleness, and also, no doubt, a little melancholy. These two loved each other, that was certain. Why hadn't I been more understanding?
I tried to recover my calm, but the memory of their sighs and panting wouldn't leave me in peace. Lying in bed with my legs open, eyes closed, I began to caress myself gently, imitating their panting and imagining all the sensations they were experiencing when I had surprised them. I had a long climax, and then I sank back into sleep, my hands still clasped between my thighs.
This time I awoke peacefully, without anguish. I knew immediately that they had come back. I allowed myself to float in a half awake state, lulled by the sounds of their love. They were right next to me, in the other bed. I opened my eyes and I saw them, naked, pale, in the lotus position, one inside the other. Their bodies undulated in harmony, and they never took their eyes off each other. Their bed was right under the window, and the faint nighttime light fell on them through the gaps in the shutters.
He turned her over onto her back and lay on top of her. Then they both turned their heads slowly towards me and looked at me. I didn't dare move or speak, for fear of driving them away again. Suddenly I felt even more anxious than ever, and I didn't know the cause of my terror. But I did lock the door, I said to myself again. But something else was bothering me, something else which I didn't know.
The lovers reached out to me with their hands. I joined them and lay down next to the woman. She brought her lips to mine, put her tongue in my mouth and gave me a kiss which ignited my whole body, which had been frozen with fear. The man moved between my legs and penetrated me, while she continued, with her hands, her mouth and her breasts, to cover me in kisses and caresses. The two lovers made me come just once, but with an intense pleasure which simultaneously touched all the sensitive points of my sex and my body and vibrated and radiated to its very extremities.
After so perfect an orgasm I must have gone straight to sleep, for I have no memory of what we did afterwards. When I awoke the next morning in their bed, they had disappeared. On the ground lay the woman's flimsy little dress, which she had abandoned on the floor. Before leaving the room I slipped it on next to my skin.
Getting back to reception was again a complex operation. I had to find my way through the tangle of corridors and staircases before I reached the lobby, dressed in a less embarrassing way than when I had arrived. When I returned my key, the receptionist looked at my dress with a fearful expression and said:
"You saw them? Normally we don't let out this room . . . it's the only haunted room in the hotel The only . . ."
"What do you mean?" I said angrily, although I don't know why.
"Shush!" he continued in a low voice, trembling like a leaf.
"Please, we don't want any scandal! All right, we were wrong! Damn ghosts! You don't owe us anything, but let's not discuss this further, if you please! Let's not discuss it, let's not discuss it!"
The man's mad, I thought. I decided not to pursue it and I left the hotel. In the dark corridor, I hesitate at a cracked door.
