Dempsey and Harry were waiting outside room number 135, with Dempsey making a point of constantly glancing at his watch, and Harry leaning one shoulder against the wall casually, seemingly unaffected by Dempsey's show of impatience.
"This is a real hare-brained idea, you know that?"
"Oh stop making a fuss. We're still eating, aren't we?" she replied.
"Oh yeah, I forgot, so we're gonna wait here for them to bring the food down to us, so we can bring the food back up to the kitchen! Real bright idea," he said, turning his attention to the door lock.
Her eyes darted in his direction. "What are you doing?"
"Nothin'," he replied, bending to peer through the hole.
He inspected the lock, the handle and all around the doorframe.
What on earth was he up to?
"Dempsey, your nothing looks suspiciously like something," she pointed out.
"Well, I aint got nothin' else to do," he replied, peering through the hole again and screwing up his eyes.
Then she registered a distant noise. "Stop that," she said suddenly, grabbing his arm, "I think they're coming."
The mechanics of the elevator could be heard from the bottom of the corridor, and then the whizzing sound of the door opening. Chinking of tableware indicated that Harry had been right; their food was arriving.
Harry opened her handbag and pretended to search for something in it.
"Did you order this food Madam?" said a voice from behind her. She looked up and turned to see a young waiter carrying a large tray.
"Oh yes we did. Thank you so much," she said, watching as Dempsey took the tray off the man.
"Would you like me to set the table?" the waiter asked.
"No, no, it's not necessary." Harry said, "We'd like to pay for this now though please."
The man nodded and fumbled in his waistcoat pocket for the bill, handing it over to her.
"Here," Dempsey said, passing the tray over to Harry, "I'll get this."
Harry looked impressed. She swapped the bill for the tray, expecting him to react to the price when he examined the slip of paper. He simply nodded though and took out his wallet to pay.
"Keep the change," he said, handing over the notes.
The waiter look thrilled and thanked Dempsey before scurrying off back down the corridor.
"Well, that was easy," Harry smiled, now excited about finally having some food to eat and looking forward to unveiling what treats lay underneath the silver domes. "Let's go," she said, turning to head for the lifts again.
"Harry." Dempsey halted her before she could leave. She swivelled her head in confusion.
"What?"
"Look, the door fell open," he said, gesturing to the gap between the door and the doorframe.
She shook her head at him in disbelief. "What were you, a cat burglar in your last life? Dempsey, we can't go in there, it's not legal," she replied.
"There you go with that legal stuff again. Harry, we aint planin' on robbin' the joint, just gonna borrow the table in here," he said, taking the tray back off her, entering the suite and heading for the round glass table in front of the window, where he placed the tray of food down. He glanced outside. "It's got a real great view."
"Dempsey," she said.
"Ah c'mon Harry, what happened to 'wild and reckless'? If ya wanna split hairs, it aint exactly legal to pretend to be stayin' in this room anyhow," he reasoned.
She considered his point for a second until the aroma of food reminded her that she hadn't eaten all day.
"Oh alright," she said, finally stepping inside the room and closing the door behind her. "But we can't stay here long," she whispered, "in case we get caught. And we must leave everything as we found it."
"Okay," he whispered back, beginning to lay out the table with the plates of food from the tray.
She approached and took a seat at the table.
He went on in a whisper. "Besides, we'll straighten out the bed sheets before we leave."
Her head shot up.
He grinned.
"Don't get any ideas," she warned him.
He coughed, "Too late for that Harry… already got them…or had them," he corrected, "for a while now. And once ya got them," he shook his head, "Aint no way of gettin' rid of them."
"Shut up silly," she laughed, turning her attention to the plates of food that had now been laid out, but with the silver domes still covering them.
"Oooh, this is quite exciting," she said, grasping her hands in front of her.
"You get excited very easily Harry," he said with a grin, his hand hovering over two of the handles on the silver domes.
Her eyes were transfixed on his hands, waiting for him to reveal the food. Still his hands hovered though as he watched her face. The moments ticked by.
"Oh come on!" she said, reaching forward to one of the plates and whipping off the dome.
He laughed. "Such enthusiasm Harry. Who'd have thought it of you? Such lack of control!" he teased.
She was sure there were way too many innuendos flying around, but at that point, she didn't care; she was ravenous! Between them they uncovered the rest of the food but Harry just sat there for a few moments afterwards, simply staring at the deliciousness in front of her.
"Harry," Dempsey called to her. No response. "Harry," he repeated, waving a hand in front of her face.
She laughed as she was pulled out of her daze.
"You can eat the food you know, as well as lookin' at it," he said.
"I know, but it all looks so gorgeous; I truly don't know where to start," she chuckled.
"Here," he said with a grin, handing her a side plate of vegetables, while he took another and began transferring potatoes to his plate.
She added vegetables to her chicken dish and finally picked up the cutlery, cutting a strip off the glistening, sticky coated chicken and popping it into her mouth. Dempsey noted, having already begun demolishing his steak dinner, that even when Harry was extremely hungry and probably itching to dig in, she ate with the kind of restraint he would expect of her. Still, the expression on her face told him all he needed to know. She had been hungry, the drink probably having heightened that hunger. She would most likely have thought that a burger was delicious that evening, but Dempsey knew from experience just how good this food tasted. She was in for a real treat.
As soon the food entered her mouth and she began to eat, her body rewarded her with a wash of satisfaction at the taste of the salty, sweet, tender chicken treat. Mmmm, she liked that... a lot!
Dempsey watched Harry's eyes close as she slowly chewed, delighting in the experience. He even found his knife and fork hovering over his own food, so distracted was he with observing her reaction.
Finally, she opened her eyes once more to seek out another morsel.
"You enjoyin' that?" Dempsey asked with a grin.
"Mmm," she nodded, chewing on another piece of chicken. Then she tested out a baby carrot; it went perfectly with the chicken as a buttery, sweet accompaniment. Finally, after finishing the first few mouthfuls, she spoke.
"I have to say, everything tastes utterly divine."
"What'd I tell ya," he replied, a wash of self-satisfaction flooding him. "If you think that's good, try this," he said, cutting off a strip of his steak and offering it to her on his fork.
She eyed it for a moment but then decided to give it a go, reaching forward to slip the piece off the fork with her teeth. She chewed and he watched. It was seconds later however when the true taste of the tidbit hit her taste buds.
"Wow, that really is good!" she said.
He smiled.
"Do you think that it's because we've had a few drinkies that everything tastes heavenly?" she asked.
He laughed. "Drinkies?"
She chuckled. "You know what I mean."
"I gotta tell ya Harry," he shook his head, "you say some funny stuff when you've had a few 'drinkies'."
She giggled and then, realizing that there was still delicious , hot food in front of her to eat, she swiftly returned her attention to her meal.
"Man, we haven't even opened this yet," he said, picking up the champagne bottle and fiddling with the foil wrapper.
"How remiss of us," she smiled. She probably shouldn't drink much more, but she consoled herself with the thought that she was now eating, and besides, the champagne would go down a treat with this food. He popped open the bottle, grinning at the memory of the last time he had done that, and poured out two glasses for them.
"Cheers," he winked, holding up his glass to her.
She smiled and clinked with him, taking a sip of the champagne. As she had suspected, it complimented the food perfectly, filling her with a warm, bubbly feeling. Wow, she was being spoilt tonight.
"Now, you gotta try this," he said, gesturing to the lobster risotto. "It's real good," he stressed. "I'm talkin' knock ya socks off good."
She paused to contemplate it though. "Ooops, I think we did this back to front. Think that should have been the starter."
Amusement bubbled up inside him at the look of pure dilemma on her face.
"Hey, let's be real bad and eat it all together," he suggested, picking up another fork, loading it with a taster of risotto and lifting it to her mouth.
She looked slightly shocked for a moment at the thought of them not eating the food in the correct order, but then, what else was there to do? Shrugging, she leant forward and once more, and took his offering.
As she leant closer to him, he detected a waft of her perfume and his eyes instinctively dropped to the front of her top... he could almost feel heat emanating from her... or was it from him? Maybe the drink hadn't just heightened their senses for food? Something was stirring, that was for sure!
Again, she closed her eyes to savour the taste... oh but this topped everything. She loved the taste of lobster as it was, but something in that risotto dish had brought out its flavour to perfection.
Dempsey couldn't take his eyes off Harry as she enjoyed her food. It was seriously hot for some reason; he'd never realised before how simply eating food could be so arousing. Weird.
Then a real funny thought hit him for one crazy moment. Watching the look on her face, he wondered if a woman had ever had an orgasm from eating lobster risotto?
He burst out laughing; he was seriously losing it!
She opened her eyes.
"What?" she asked.
"Oh nothin'," he grinned.
"Do you want some?" she offered.
He chuckled. "Nah, you just enjoy it," he said, returning to his meal with a shake of his head.
She contemplated him for a second, wondering what on earth was going through that head of his. Then she resumed eating.
It wasn't long, however, before she was too full to eat another thing. Unfortunately, she had only eaten half of her food. Maybe she had been a little too overzealous in ordering so much.
She put her knife and fork to one side on the plate, finally admitting defeat, and sat back in her chair with a sigh of contentment, picking up her champagne to enjoy small sips of the warming and uplifting glass of bubbles. The perfect ending to a perfect, if not slightly illegitimate, meal.
"I'm sorry, I really can't eat anymore," she said. "But it was delicious. Thank you."
He smiled, already having finished his meal. "Glad you liked it." Reaching over, he topped up her champagne glass before refilling his own.
"I did," she confirmed, with what seemed to him to be somehow an inviting smile.
Her eyes lingered on his for a moment before she glanced around the room and went on to say, "Well, so far we've ordered and eaten an unauthorized meal and broken into a room at the London Park Lane, whatever next? I feel incredibly naughty," she chuckled.
His head shot up. "Yeah? How naughty?" he said, his eyes darting to the open door of the adjoining bedroom.
She watched him for a moment, a smile on her face. His heart raced for a second before she replied.
"Poor Eddie, I feel awful for him eating a burger when we have eaten all this."
"We offered for him to join us," he pointed out. "I could phone him," he went on hopefully, "Tell him we're gettin' a cab back so he don't have to wait."
She laughed. "No Dempsey."
Well… it was worth a try.
"Hey," he said, gesturing around the room. "Bring back any memories?"
She laughed. "What? Of you making me sleep on the sofa?"
He smiled. "Yeah well, if I'da taken the couch, there'd have been no chance of you gettin' next to me then, would there?"
"There was no chance of that anyway," she replied. "You didn't really think I'd do that, did you?"
"A man can have hope, can't he?" he came back. What was he admitting to? "What is this," he laughed, lifting up the champagne glass to look at its contents wryly, "Truth serum?"
She smiled.
"I gotta say though Harry, I had quite a good picture of it happenin' at the time," he went on, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "Of you sneakin' into the room, slippin' off that bathrobe and slidin' into the bed next to me… naked," he grinned.
"Dempsey," she chastised, "you have a very dirty mind," she said, feigning shock… but the smile on her face betrayed her.
If he didn't know better, he'd think that she was enjoying every moment of this whole conversation!
"What, and you don't?" he continued. "C'mon Harry, you never had a dirty thought before in your entire life?" He was on a roll now, and quite unable to stop himself.
"What an outrageous question!" she said, but still that smile was there.
"Sure you have," he concluded. "The question is," he said, leaning towards her, "Did it ever involve me?"
She simply stared at him, making him wonder, that slight smile taunting him.
"C'mon," he coaxed, waiting for an admission. "Wild and reckless," he reminded her.
Her smile widened. "I'm going to rue the day I said that, aren't I?"
"I sure hope so," he grinned.
She sipped her drink and he mirrored her, his eyes never leaving hers as an intense silence reverberated around the room.
Then suddenly she was alert, the change in her demeanour immediately communicating itself to him.
"Dempsey, what was that?" she whispered.
There it was again, a sound outside the door warning them that someone was there.
She jumped up from her seat and pointed at the balcony door, making fast towards it when the sound of rattling keys could be heard.
Sliding the door open with shaking hands, she slipped through the gap, turning to look for Dempsey behind her. He was still in the room however, transferring food onto one of the plates. What the hell was he doing? Then, at the last minute, he made a dash for the door, plate in hand, and they both backed into the shadows, just managing to slide the balcony door shut as light from the corridor outside flooded the room.
"What are you doing with that?" she whispered, her eyes falling to the plate in his hand.
"I've had an idea; go with me on this," he replied.
"And you don't think that will make us look even more suspicious?" she whispered back.
"Shh," he said, urging her towards the side of the balcony and indicating for her to climb over to the next one.
"Great," she said, grabbing onto the railing and stepping up onto one of the bars.
He watched with a grin as she clambered over, a fantastic view of her rear in front of him as she did so. Damn, she had a hot body!
Finally, having made it to the other side, he handed her the plate and began to climb also, joining her. By this time, there were voices clearly audible from the room they had just left. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back next to him against the wall as the balcony door of the room next to them opened. They stood in a tense silence, waiting to see if they would be rumbled. Fortunately however, the person must have thought they had left, and the balcony door was closed once more.
Standing there, with his hands already on her, and as far as he was concerned, free to roam, he lost all inhibitions and sought out with one hand the taut flesh he'd admired just moments before. Man, he just had to get lucky tonight! His hand was certainly in the right place!
"Dempsey," she said.
Oh no!
"Yeah," he replied.
"There are people sleeping in this room. Think we're going to have to climb a few more balconies tonight."