A photo of a woman in black lingerie and high heels, sitting on a bed so her voluptuous profile is visible but her face is not, can be found on the Exhale Day Spa’s Web site after a few clicks lead to a link for "special requests."

"Of course, we encourage you to discuss your own personal needs and preferences with your therapist, to ensure your total comfort and satisfaction," reads a message alongside that suggestive shot. "If there are particular places you feel would benefit from additional attention, be sure to discuss it with your therapist."

After the Pine Street day spa was raided by Montclair police officers last week, the owner and a worker were brought up on prostitution charges. According to police, the employee offered more than a massage to an undercover detective.

In a phone interview with The Times, the owner said police just happened to encounter a new employee who was acting without authorization. She insisted she was trying to run a legitimate business.

Police arrested Junia Rodriguez, 30, of Newark, and Chelia Tavarez, 27, of Paterson, following the investigation last Friday, May 2.

An undercover detective scheduled a massage at the Exhale Day Spa, on the second floor of 127 Pine St., for 5:30 p.m., police said. After he paid the standard $60 for a one-hour session, Tavarez escorted him to one of several back rooms and during the massage, asked if he wanted her to perform sex acts on him for an additional fee, according to police.

The detective declined and left the spa, and a judge issued a search warrant about an hour later. When five investigators from the Detective Bureau and the Vice Control Unit returned, they found Tavarez naked in one of the back rooms with a customer, authorities said. Detectives also found, in the same room, an open condom wrapper on a shelf and the condom itself lying on the floor, police said.

Rodriguez, the spa owner, arrived at 7:15 p.m. when she got a call about the raid.

She said she was not present when the search began since she had gone to her mother-in-law’s to pick up her daughter and take the child to a doctor’s appointment.

Rodriguez said her criminal charge for promoting prostitution resulted from "a misunderstanding," and she blamed the entire incident on Tavarez, who, Rodriguez claimed, was arrested on her first day of work.

As she was departing from the spa at around 4 p.m. to get her daughter, Tavarez was arriving, the owner said. Rodriguez asked her receptionist to have the new masseuse fill out an employment application. Later that evening, she expected to return to the spa to go over the details of the job, the owner said.

According to Rodriguez, she left Tavarez, a new employee, who she had not familiarized with the position, alone with the receptionist. Rodriguez said she could not reschedule her daughter’s appointment and could not leave the spa unattended, she said.

The receptionist, who had been working at the business since Rodriguez went on leave for six-and-a-half months during her pregnancy, was supposed to monitor and supervise the office, she said.

"I don’t have nothing to hide," Rodriguez said.

Her staff includes one male masseuse who works on a part-time basis, she said, once or twice a week. Her five other masseuses are women, she said.

During the three days a week she is at the spa, Rodriguez said she checks the massage rooms periodically to make sure nothing questionable occurs.

In the past she has discovered, on two different occasions, two workers engaging in sexual conduct, and she fired them, Rodriguez said. Once, one of those employees argued with her and refused to get off the property, so she called the police. Before officers arrived, the woman took off, but Rodriguez said she cooperated with law enforcement and gave detectives information on the ex-worker, stopping short of filing charges.

Police could not be reached to authenticate that story.

Rodriguez said she’s been talking to her landlord about renting out the first floor, to add manicures, pedicures and facials to the services offered by the spa.

A previous owner had operated the business for two years before she bought it a year-and-a-half ago, Rodriguez said.

As for Exhale’s racy Web site, it has remained unchanged from when she bought the spa, Rodriguez said. She had already borrowed money to purchase the business and couldn’t sink more cash into altering the site, which she doesn’t use anyway, Rodriguez said.

Following last week’s raid, she was charged with promoting prostitution, while Tavarez was charged with engaging in prostitution.

Officers seized documents with customers’ names and identification numbers on them, plus a total of $523 in cash, police said.