Does This Feel Good?

** Harper **

Harper didn't need any further convincing to stretch out like a cat over the soft cushions.

The leather was smooth and cool to the touch, pressed against her skin like a fluffy cloud. She closed her eyes, letting herself sink in and turning all her attention onto the heavenly feeling of Eli's skilled hands. He focused on her neck and shoulders, nimbly working through each sore spot, and she sighed again as all her muscles started to unfurl themselves under the steady coaxing.

"You've actually got a lot of tension in your body, Harper," Eli commented after a little while. "Here." He pressed somewhere just above her shoulder blade, and the mix of soreness and relief almost made her giggle. "Here". Another tender area down the bottom of her neck. "And here …"

"… Yeah, I got the memo." Harper bit back another giggle. "Unfortunately I don't get paid to use a massage chair in my office."

"You could do desk exercises. I'll send you a video of the ones I found most useful." He was applying more pressure with his fingers now that her muscles could tolerate more of it after one pass. "Or you can just come hang out here more often, I don't mind."

That was very tempting, Harper thought. Of course, she knew he was a busy man with a busy schedule and barely any weekend time to spare, which meant he was probably saying it only to be nice, but that didn't make the idea any less tempting.

"It's hard to resist the second option, you know," she mumbled in lazy contentment. "You're too good at this."

The hands seemed to slow a little. She couldn't see his expression behind her, but there was a smile in his voice as he said, "I remember you saying the same thing last weekend."

Last weekend …

Harper suddenly tensed as she recalled the context in which she had said it.

Eli, however, continued without a change in his tone. "Your back is probably holding a lot of pressure too." One of his hands moved down, running tentatively along her spine, whereas the other loomed over the zipper of her dress. "Clothes create too much friction and won't feel comfortable if I scrub against them. May I?"

… If she had missed the hint earlier when he asked her to lie down, she's got it a hundred percent this time around.

Swallowing in half self-consciousness and half anticipation, Harper nodded. Her heart skipped a beat as she felt the back of her dress open up, and his hands slid smoothly onto her skin.

He was still massaging though. Equally skillfully, pressing his thumbs over the tight knots down her spine. It felt nice … Maybe just as nice as the earlier kneading of her shoulders, but somehow, the tension in her body didn't seem to ease at the touch like it did before. Instead, it was … building up subtly by the minute, in a completely different way.

If Eli could tell the change, he didn't comment. His movements were still perfectly measured, practiced. "Does this feel good?" he asked.

"… Yes." Harper was proud that her voice didn't betray anything at all.

He continued, and she felt him switching to a different technique. The side of his palm glided up the center of her back, applying a smooth stroke of pressure over her muscles, and when his path was blocked by the back strap of her bra, he unhooked it and let it fall to the side.

"What about this?" he asked again.

"…" Well, Harper was sure that this was a common technique practiced by real, professional spa specialists, and that it was certainly supposed to be soothing. But … When it was Eli doing it, running his hand slowly and surely along her bare skin, why did it feel less soothing and more … arousing?

"Y-Yes," she managed regardless, because that was the truth. Soothing or not, it did feel … nice.

As if waiting for her approval to imply permission, he moved on. His hands didn't linger on her back this time, but instead glided around her torso, slipping under her open bra. Cupping both of her breasts, he kneaded them in the same way he had just treated her neck and shoulders.

Harper stifled a whimper. All the sensations from last week suddenly came rushing back, and with every squeeze of his hands, she could feel the heat building inside her chest, crawling through the rest of her body. The tension that he had just released from her shoulders seemed to be rolling back now, piling on top of an utterly different ache …

"What about this?" he asked again.

"…"

Eli chuckled when Harper didn't reply this time. Shifting his weight, he moved closer, dropping a light kiss on the back of her neck. The sudden tingles that came from the touch of his lips made her tense all over again, and a tiny gasp escaped her throat.

"Don't be shy to say it, Harper. Consider this your dialogue practice for your next chapter." His coaxing words brushed gently over her skin. "Tell me — what about this? Does this feel good?"

And then he caught her nipples between his fingers, rubbing the pad of his thumb over each sensitive tip.

"Oh God, yes …" The words tumbled out of her before she could stop it. Damn, there went the illusion of her modesty. But it was hard to think any further about it as sparks of sensation poured in from his fingertips, turning her body on like a magic switch. The slow, shimmering warmth that had been waiting inside her sizzled, and she moaned deeply as her whole body started to throb with need.

She felt Eli smile as he trailed more kisses along her neck. One of his hands slipped out of her bra, and she almost whimpered at the loss of contact. But then it slid over her back, past the open zipper of her dress, past the mini skirt … and it grazed her legs, gently stroking her inner thighs.

"Good job, little dove," he breathed against her ear. "Now tell me next — where else would you like me to massage?"