For Paprika
Che Bella
Hermione reached into her handbag and felt for the glossy paper voucher. She'd met Luna, a former colleague, for lunch last week, and the blonde had pulled the voucher out of a random pocket of her patchwork skirt and handed it to her. The voucher had been Luna's sole response when questioned about where she was now working. Still dressed to the nines in her best dark pantsuit with her hair pinned up, Hermione must have looked like someone important, because the white gloved doorman of the Four Seasons Hotel pulled the heavy glass portal open as Hermione approached. Her heels clicked on the floor of the brightly lit lobby as she made her way to the bank of lifts opposite the check-in counter. A soft ding heralded the approach of the one nearest to her, and she stepped inside to check the floor buttons, then found what she was looking for.
3 – Des Jardins French Cuisine, JW Steak and Fine Dining, Che Bella
She pressed the button for the third floor, and stepped back to wait, then smoothed her jacket in the mirror. With an identical ding, the doors opened, and Hermione followed the sign for the spa. Potted plants both real and painted on the walls flanked the entrance, and Hermione pushed through the glass door. Compared to the brightly lit lobby and hotel hallway, the spa was dimly lit, purposefully so. Plush carpeting deadened sound and muffled her heels, and a fountain trickled water to her left. A row of low, padded seats sat along the right wall, all of them vacant, while the left was obscured by various plant life, which she supposed was to make anyone waiting in the chairs feel more at ease. The scent of lemongrass reached her nostrils, and she instinctively breathed deep. The air was warmer, too, and more humid, though not uncomfortably so. She turned to her right, to the reception counter, only to find the bright grey eyes and blonde tresses of Luna Lovegood staring back at her. She wore a flowing green top and a bright pink pen had been stuck behind one ear.
"Hello, welcome to Che Bella, do you have an appointment?" Luna asked.
"Err… no, but I have the voucher," Hermione said as she produced the slip of paper and slid it on top of the counter.
"Oh, thank you ma'am," Luna said as she took the voucher and scanned it, "would you prefer the sixty-minute massage, or ninety?"
Hermione paused, then leaned forward.
"Luna, we talked about this, why would anyone take a sixty-minute massage when a ninety was offered?" she whispered.
Luna also leaned forward conspiratorially.
"I know, but I really love every part of my job," she whispered with a smile and a wink. Then she stood up straight again.
"So, what will it be ma'am?" Luna asked.
Hermione decided to humor her.
"Err, I'll take the ninety-minute massage," she replied.
Luna uncapped her fluorescent pink pen and wrote a note on the voucher.
"Very good, and would you prefer oil, or no?" Luna asked.
She hadn't been prepared for that. An oil massage might make her blouse cling to her afterwards. Then again, oil did make for a better massage.
"You only live once, right?" she thought.
"Oil, please," Hermione replied.
"Excellent choice ma'am," Luna said as she marked something else off on the voucher, "please remove your shoes and place them in the cubby, and follow me."
Luna stepped out from behind the counter and walked on bare feet towards the row of padded seats, her long, deep blue skirt flirting with bare ankles as she moved. Hermione quickly slipped out of her pumps and followed her, her toes sinking into the deep plush. She sat in the chair Luna motioned to, and then without preamble, she blonde knelt down beside her, pulled out a large bowl of water from where it rested against the wall, and set it in front of the chair. When Hermione looked down, somehow, flower petals had appeared on top of the water; Luna must have sprinkled them on. Without preamble, Luna rolled up the bottom of one of her pant legs and lifted her foot to set it in the basin. Hot water, not quite scalding, immediately started to take the edge off a full day wearing heels, and the blonde repeated the process with her other foot.
"We'll call you in a moment," Luna said as she stood up, then she turned and walked towards the rear of the spa to vanish into a back room. Hermione sat alone, letting her tired feet soak in the hot, scented water, and closed her eyes. The trickle of running water from the fountain mixed with some kind of soothing, soft, piano and bell zen meditation music, and she tried her best to leave her workday behind. It had been an especially trying one, too, the culmination of more sleep deprived nights she cared to count, and struggling to keep her cool while standing opposite Draco bloody Malfoy as he continually pointed out that no permanent harm had been done, and how it was a first offence. The late nights had been worth it though, and she had been well prepared to counter every one of his points. With closing arguments done, Magistrate deliberation would take a day or two at most. That meant she had this small window to try and unwind from the stress of this latest high-profile court trial before the possible appeal, should the magistrate come back with an absurdly low sentence.
Hermione, being careful not to spill, wiggled her toes in the water and breathed deeply. She had been slightly apprehensive and self-conscious about her feet after an entire workday, but the scented water was an ingenious solution and she already felt the stress of the day, the week, dissipating… and she hadn't even started!
"Ma'am, right this way," Luna said, and Hermione startled.
"Did I fall asleep?" she thought. She stood up and padded after Luna, the cool air on her wet skin a contrast to the stifling warmth she felt over the rest of her body. The blonde led her to one of several back rooms and held the wooden door open for her. Earthy tones greeted her; almost everything inside the room was some shade of brown. Luna smiled at her as she passed by. Even though she had been the one to hand Hermione the voucher the other day, she insisted on acting like she didn't know her, that they hadn't spent six months working in the same office. Hermione chalked it up to the younger woman's many quirks, and somehow, she appreciated her even more. Another fountain, a small one, sat on the floor in the corner of this room as well. An open closet sat adjacent to the door, with a sink and vanity mirror farther past it. Various bottles and towels covered the surface of the counter. Set near to the opposite wall, far enough away to let someone walk all the way around, the massage table waited, complete with white towels draped over it and rolled up to create a makeshift pillow.
"You can hang your clothes up in the cubby there, then lie face down on the table," Luna said, "your massage therapist will be with you shortly."
"Erm… should I remove everything?" Hermione asked.
"If you want to experience the full effect, then yes, but you don't have to," Luna replied with a soft smile.
The ache in Hermione's shoulders reminded her just how much she needed this, and she nodded to Luna, who backed up and closed the door behind her. Hermione set her handbag down in the cubby, then shrugged out of her suit jacket and hung it up on one of the hangers provided. She unbuckled her belt and undid the clasp of her pants next, slipping out of them one leg at a time. She left the belt looped through the waistband and used clips attached to the hanger to fasten it beneath her jacket. Her blouse was next, as she deftly undid the buttons. It was around this time she started growing paranoid at how long it was taking her to undress, and half-expected a knock at the door before she could finish. With the warmth of the room affirming her decision to remove everything, she unhooked her bra and tossed it over the bar in the closet, then bent over to strip off her panties. These, she folded and stuck into the pocket of her suit pants. Her hair she left pulled up; no need to be getting oil all over that. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror above the sink and frowned at the lines her undergarments had left on her skin, visible even in the dim lighting of the private massage room.
"Surely, the girls giving the massages are professionals, and they see this type of thing all the time," she thought.
With that only somewhat effective attempt at consoling herself, she lifted one of the towels from the bed and lay down. A hole in the surface ringed by rolled up towels made a perfect space for her face to fit, and she blindly spread the towel she'd picked up over her buttocks and upper thighs, then tried to relax as she stared at the small fountain in the corner of the room, and let the soothing spa music wash over her. She startled again as a knock sounded at the door.
"Come in," Hermione said.
The door opened on silent hinges, and suddenly she was no longer alone in the room. She caught a glimpse of dark maroon toenails as her masseuse moved to the sink and started bustling with the bottles.
"My name is Bella, and I'll be your masseuse today," she said.
"Bella, as in Che Bella?" Hermione asked.
"Why, thank you, and you haven't even seen me yet," Bella replied. Hermione heard a smile in her voice and chuckled.
"I meant, you're Bella, the owner of the spa?" she asked.
"The same. Is that to your liking?" Bella asked.
"Of course! I… just wasn't expecting it," Hermione replied.
"It's usually quiet at this time of year," Bella replied.
The sound of a faucet and washing hands reached Hermione, followed by toweling dry.
"Anything I should know before we start?" Bella asked.
Hermione shook her head. Gentle hands adjusted her arms down by her sides, followed by the sound of the pump of an oil bottle. The scent of lemongrass and the soothing music had already dulled her senses and made her drowsy and lethargic. The sound of well lubricated palms rubbing against one another reached her, and then warm, slippery oil spread across her back. An involuntary sigh escaped her lips as she relaxed into the care of Bella's smooth, magical hands. They moved up to her shoulders, kneading and pressing, then trailed down her spine to the small of her back, and up to her neck again. Tightly clipped fingers felt absolutely divine as they kneaded and circled. Bella spent several minutes on the muscles around her spine, her neck, and shoulders, then moved to Hermione's left arm. Long strokes had Hermione focusing on the sensations of warm flesh against her skin. Bella moved around to the other side of the bed and worked her other arm, then lifted her hand to massage her fingers, one at a time. She spent extra time and focus on her thumb and first two fingers, the ones that cramped the most whenever she wrote notes late into the night. Five pops, one for each knuckle as Bella pulled to crack them, and she moved to her other hand to give it the same treatment. Then it was back to her shoulders.
"You're incredibly tense," Bella said as she worked, "do you mind if I go a little deeper?"
"Not at all," Hermione replied. The painted toenails left the floor and Hermione felt a presence straddling her thigh, then very light material, silk perhaps, brushing against her back, followed by a deep press into her shoulder muscles.
"Her elbow?" she thought.
She grunted in pain and relief as Bella worked out an especially difficult knot, then sighed as those magic hands went to work again, stroking, soothing. Bella slid down and Hermione's abdominal muscles tightened as she approached the border between her lower back and the crack of her butt, but then the masseuse slipped onto the floor. Gentle hands again manipulated her limbs, this time to nudge her legs slightly farther apart, followed by the sound of more pumping oil. Warm palms ran up her calves, over the back of her knees, and halfway up her thighs, then back down again.
"You wear heels, don't you," Bella said. It was more of a statement than a question.
"How could you tell?" Hermione asked.
"Calf muscles are tight, damage to your toes," Bella replied.
"Damage to my toes?" Hermione asked.
"Not to worry," Bella said as she pressed the heel of her palm against the inside arch of Hermione's foot.
"Oh," Hermione said as blessed relief flooded through her. Bella squeezed her heel, relieving an ache she didn't even know she felt, and then moved to her toes, starting with her big toe, but massaging each one individually and then running her fingers between them. Her feet had definitely borne the brunt of weeks' worth of punishment, and everything Bella was doing, whatever she was doing, was having a magnificent effect on her. A tingle shot up through her legs and through her stomach as Bella popped each knuckle of her toes, and then kneaded her own knuckles into the sole of Hermione's foot and over the back of her heel. She idly wondered how much time had passed already and whether ninety minutes would be enough.
"Hang on," Hermione thought as the tingling sensation coalesced around her groin and refused to depart, "am I…?"
As Bella moved to her other foot, there was no longer any doubt: the ministrations of the masseuse had migrated from pure relaxation and progressed well into arousal. Now acutely aware of her state of undress, with only a strip of towel protecting her modesty, embarrassment started to increase her worry. She tried to fight the growing warmth in her belly, the inexorable tingling in her sex, the familiar sensation of opening up, but as Bella moved to her thigh and slid the towel up slightly higher, Hermione swallowed and simply let the arousal wash through her.
"You're heading straight home after this, you can always take care of it then," she thought. The surety of her vibrator, waiting for her in her nightstand, and the toe-curling orgasm which certainly awaited her after such a sensuous massage, brought the heat all the way to her cheeks.
"Thank goodness I'm face down," she thought.
Then Bella's hands reached the top of her thigh, right at the juncture where her leg met her bum, and pressed deep.
"Unh," Hermione said, an accidental, but clearly sensual whimper, and she froze, mortified. For a split-second, she thought Bella might have paused as well, but the hands returned to the top of her knee and proceeded up her thigh again. This time, she kept her mouth shut when Bella pressed, though she wasn't able to fully stop the exhale through her nostrils. Bella did it again, and though Hermione's stomach tightened, she kept silent. Hands slid their way up her thigh a fourth time, and then deliberately pressed the same spot, hard.
"Oh," Hermione said, despite her efforts to keep it in, and there was no mistaking the husky, hopelessly turned-on vocalization. She froze again, embarrassed.
"Let it out, it will help you relax," Bella said quietly.
"Of course, I'm sure she's heard it all before," Hermione thought. With that in mind, she focused on the hands sliding up her thigh yet again, and this time, when they reached the same spot and pressed, she helped the involuntary moan along, and let out an absolutely obscene, by her standards, sultry groan.
"That's better," Bella said, and Hermione heard the smile in her voice again. Encouraged by her masseuse, with every kneading stroke, Hermione gave voice to more passionate sighs, until they bordered full-on erotic moans.
"Someone might think we're having sex in here," she thought, followed almost immediately by, "who cares!"
Bella had moved to her other thigh, and this time Hermione couldn't wait for her to reach the same spot, and she commenced her aroused moans, this time with Bella's encouragement.
"Louder. It's okay, let it out. Nobody else is here," she whispered.
Then hands reached up to her buttocks, to the edge of the towel.
"Do you mind?" Bella asked.
Hermione shook her head, and the towel was shifted up to her back, and then those kneading, stroking, oil slick hands worked their magic over her bum, and all Hermione could think about was how close they now were to her sex, and how much she wanted to roll over and have those magic oil-slick fingers massaging her clit instead. At some point, Bella had crept back up onto the massage bed, only now there was a brush of skin against her thighs instead of silk. Then the presence was gone, and Hermione spotted painted toes on the carpet again.
"Turn over, please," Bella said.
Hermione almost asked her to repeat herself, but, rather than embarrassing both of them, she lifted her head up, slowly, as her recently massaged muscles ached with the movement, and turned to see her masseuse's back. Tall and obviously fit, with wild, raven hair, and cream-colored skin, she wore a short purple silk robe, probably due to the warmth of the massage room. Other than that, Hermione couldn't tell anything about her except that almost certainly exercised regularly. Still thoroughly aroused, she imagined a dark-haired beauty, naked beneath the flimsy silk robe. She blinked and realized she had crossed the border between glancing and gawking, then awkwardly turned onto her back. She considered leaving the towel off, but eventually spread it over herself to cover her groin and breasts, though it did little to hide the peaks of her hardened nipples.
"Okay," she said, her voice sounding breathy even to herself.
Bella turned around with her hands folded in front of her, and Hermione's breath caught. Somewhat older, with dark eyes that did not yet show signs of wrinkles, she seemed somehow more refined than Hermione, with what could only be described as aristocratic features.
"So nice to finally meet you face to face," Bella said, and Hermione smiled. She closed her eyes as Bella moved to her legs, pumped another few squirts of oil, and started to massage the front of her thighs. Anticipation built as Bella repeatedly slid her hands up towards Hermione's hips, and the tingle in her groin became a desperate need to be filled, and she struggled to keep her knees where they were, to counter the growing urge to spread them wide. Then the sensation stopped, and Hermione opened her eyes to see Bella close to her, close enough to pick out the individual threads of her robe and the sway of her breasts beneath as she rubbed her hands together. Bella placed them placing them at the top of her chest, and Hermione stared into dark eyes, an incredibly intimate moment as Bella stroked and massaged the area between her neck and breasts. She tried to communicate without words, to will Bella's hands lower, to run the oil over breasts and nipples, but every time they stopped right at the edge of the towel.
"Do you want me to massage your stomach?" Bella asked.
Another tingle shot through Hermione at the mere notion.
"Yes please," Hermione whispered.
She closed her eyes as Bella folded the towel down, until it only covered her hips and the very top of her thighs. Warm hands caressed her abdomen, and Hermione nearly quivered with anticipation. Gently pressing warmth moved up the center of her chest, between her breasts, and then up the outside of her body, purposefully avoiding her sensitive peaks. Hermione cracked an eyelid open; the shoulder of Bella's robe had slipped down, exposing the top of a single breast nearly to her nipple, and Hermione ran out of patience.
"I think… maybe… here," she said as she vaguely motioned to her left nipple. Bella silently obliged, with a single soft palm, and Hermione let out a relieved moan.
"Oh… that feels so good," Hermione gasped out as slick fingers teased her nipples.
Warm hands caressed first one, then the other, then both at the same time. The sensation of oiled flesh sliding against her… she wanted more.
"Bella… Bella please," she whispered.
"Please… what?" Bella asked as she tugged on one nipple, stretched it up, then let it snap back.
Hermione couldn't speak properly, so she pulled the towel away and let it drop to the floor as she lifted her hips off the bed.
"I need… I need…" Hermione said.
"You still seem so tense… do you need a massage… here?" Bella asked with a smile as she pointed an oil-slicked finger directly at Hermione's sex.
Hermione nodded vigorously.
"So demanding. But with a request like that, how could I refuse?" Bella said. She proceeded to the sink to wash her hands, and returned with a stack of towels. Hermione lifted her hips and let Bella slide the towels beneath her bum, then spread her knees wide, as wide as she could, until she felt the stretch in her thighs. She had been nearly naked for so long, all modesty had since fled, and she rolled her hips as her breaths came shorter, while Bella took her time. The masseuse slowly undid the tie for her robe and let it fall open. Her breasts, full, with dark areolae and already hardened nipples, fell free of the loosened silk as she leaned forward on her elbows over the bed, and Hermione held still as she lightly blew across the top of her entrance.
"Is she… is she turned on, by me?" Hermione thought. The thought that she might be having an effect on her masseuse, someone who had no doubt seen hundreds of naked women, sent her heart racing.
"I need…" she said again.
"I know, you need, and Bella is here to provide," Bella said. She licked one of those magic fingers and teased Hermione's undoubtedly slick folds, "oh, so wet. You must be dying for this."
Hermione's head fell back at the sensation of being spread, and then the feather brush of hair against her thighs, a sensation she'd come to associate with a warm tongue circling her clit. The anticipation nearly killed her, and she sighed in relief as it began, but it wasn't nearly enough; she needed to be filled, and her splayed thighs quaked with desire. Bella obliged, first by circling her entrance, then easing one finger in, followed by a second.
"Yes," Hermione moaned, all sense of propriety completely gone. The combination of Bella alternately licking and sucking on her clit combined with the pair of fingers inside her had her right on the cusp, but it wasn't enough to push her over the edge.
"Find that spot, please… please," she thought as she rode her wave still higher.
Then all coherent thought ceased to exist as she saw actual multicolored fireworks behind her eyelids. Whether because Bella was experienced, or because Hermione had accidentally spoken aloud, Bella began to curl her fingers inside her. Her panting took on an urgent tone as her wave crested higher, and then the dam suddenly burst and explosive climax took hold of her body and mind. Her mouth worked silently as her cunt convulsed around Bella's fingers.
"Ah," the masseuse said, as if from very, very far away.
Hermione swallowed as she descended the far side, but Bella's fingers remained, and with her tongue and lips on the outside, and her smooth fingertips from the inside, Hermione felt the wave build impossibly fast a second time, and then before that had completely finished, a third washed over her. Orgasms ran together and she lost track of time until her ankles fell off both sides of the bed and her legs dangled helplessly as Bella withdrew.
"Time's up," she said quietly.
"No! I want more," Hermione thought, but words failed her.
Bella picked up a new towel from the counter and threw it over Hermione, who could do nothing but pant from the exertion she'd just been put through. Bella gently placed her feet back onto the bed, then ran a palm up and down the length of one sole, then the other.
"You have beautiful feet, and lovely toes. You should take care of them," Bella said. Hermione wasn't sure what to say, so she watched Bella in the mirror as the masseuse moved to the sink and calmly washed her hands and drank a cup of water.
"I hope you enjoyed the massage," Bella said as she caught Hermione's gaze in the mirror. Hermione could only nod in response.
Bella retied her robe and moved to the door.
"Do come again," she said as she paused with a hand on the door.
Before Hermione could think of anything to say to respond to that, Bella had gone, glided out through the door and closed it behind her. With the combination of a ninety-minute massage complete with an indeterminate number of orgasms, Hermione's limbs didn't seem to function properly, and it was a good fifteen minutes before she could stumble out of the bed and dress herself. Her inner thighs ached, and the realization of what she'd just done, or rather, what she had allowed to happen, started to catch up with her.
"What will Luna think?" she thought.
Still damp between her legs, and now with her blouse and pants clinging uncomfortably to her skin, she made her way to the front of the spa. Luna stood by the entrance with a new voucher held in one hand.
"Thank you for coming to Che Bella, and we hope you'll come again," the blonde said as she passed a fresh voucher to Hermione.
Hermione looked down at the slip of glossy paper.
"She wants me to come again?" Hermione asked.
Luna nodded.
"Yes. She said you're now her favorite customer. Aren't you lucky?" the blonde said.
Hermione smiled slightly as she stared down at the voucher; an entire world of possibilities opened up before her eyes.
"I guess I am," she replied, "does she… do house calls?"
Luna's smile broadened into a huge grin.
"She was hoping you would ask," the blonde replied.
"Yes, very lucky indeed," Hermione thought as she slipped her shoes back on and ran her oil infused fingers over the voucher, "next time, I'll be sure to return the favor."
