"Good evening, Miss Cornell. My name is Ellie. If you'd like to take all your clothes off, and lie face down on the couch under the towel, I'll be back with you in just a second."
Ellie is younger than any of the masseuses I've had before. Nineteen maybe, twenty max. Prettier too. Petite, but with a full little body and chocolate brunette hair drawn back practically in a ponytail. And not just pretty, sexy too, in a subtle but powerful way.
As I quickly strip and slip under the soft linen towel I know I'm in trouble.
Now don't get the wrong impression, I'm not the kind of woman that needs to go to a seedy corner of town to hand over my hard-earned cash for some executive relief. Quite frankly I know damn well that if I want it I can get it, and without diluting my standards too far, either.
No, Ellie is a pukka masseuse in the pukka spa of a five star hotel, and right up until the moment she introduced herself I'd been expecting nothing more nor less than the exquisite sixty minutes of escape that is a quality professional massage.
She pads back into the room in bare feet, and I am thrilled that under the towel I am naked. She slides the towel down my back, and inevitably I want her to keep on going, to strip me bare. "Go on, expose my ass you pretty young thing," I think, but inevitably she stops at the small of my back, just where it all starts to get interesting.
She begins on my upper back, silent, professional. Normally I love the quiet, the opportunity to lose myself in nothing, but just now as Ellie's hands repeatedly sweep down towards my bottom and then slip teasingly away again there is a lot more than nothing on my mind.
"You're very good," I murmur, originality being sacrificed to necessity.
"Thank you, miss."
"Do you mind if I ask how old you are Ellie?"
"Nineteen, miss."
"Well this is the best massage I've had in a very long time. I'm impressed."
"Thank you, miss." Not surprisingly, given that masseuses are the mirror opposites of hair stylists, conversation is perhaps not her strongest suit.
The towel is returned to my shoulders, and then the bottom seam slid up my leg, up the back of my thigh. "Keep going, keep going," I think, but inevitably she stops just at the crease of my butt.
Ellie's hands are strong, firm, controlling. It is thrilling to feel her young fingers controlling my flesh so. I have to have another go.
"You're boyfriend's a lucky guy," I venture.
Ellie giggles nervously. "You'd probably better tell him that, miss." I have an image of a scrawny pimply nineteen year old boy mounting this lovely little girl, and I shudder.
"Is everything okay, miss? I'm not pressing too hard, am I?"
"Your touch is exquisite, Ellie. I'm afraid my reaction was for entirely different reasons."