Monte Carlo simulations and experiments in tissue phantoms were used to empirically develop an analytical model that characterizes the reflectance spectrum in a turbid medium. The model extracts the optical properties (scattering and absorption coefficients) of the medium at small source-detector separations, for which the diffusion approximation is not valid. The accuracy of the model and the inversion algorithm were investigated and validated. Four fiber probe configurations were tested for which both the source and the detector fibers were tilted at a predetermined angle, with the fibers parallel to each other. This parallel-fiber geometry facilitates clinical endoscopic applications and ease of fabrication. Accurate extraction of tissue optical properties from in vivo spectral measurements could have potential applications in detecting, noninvasively and in real time, epithelial (pre)cancers.