Secret Seduction

≾SS2≿

Herald Floyd in the image.

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                When I stepped into Lounge21, the bar that Hernandez told me to meet him at, I was at least thirty minutes late. The meeting dragged longer than expected and traffic was hectic. I glided through the cluster of people and searched the bar from Hernandez. I didn't find him. Instead, I found July, sitting at the corner of the bar, with his profile turned facing me.

I stopped in my tracks and watched him for awhile. There was something about his body language that made him so sensual. He sat at the bar, his back straight and his hands on top of the counter. He moved his lips, talking casually with the bar tender. The bar tender, a young girl probably around his age, smiled sweetly at him.

I walked towards him and gradually took a seat next to him. Naturally, he turned to me and his smile widened by a few inches. Just then, the bartender placed a shot glass in front of him. She tilted a bottle of Absolut Vodka at the edge of the glass so that she could control how much alcohol streamed out. When the glass was full, she closed the bottle and turned to me, "What can I get you?"

July held a hand up to her, his eyes still set on mine, "Five more shot glasses, please Rosetta?"

The woman named Rosetta seemed to pick up on July's playful tone and she rolled her eyes. "Not this again." She groaned before turning around and grabbing five more shot glasses

"What is she talking about?" I asked lowly, my curiosity getting the best of me.

July leaned closer, lowering his voice, "Just watch and see."

Rosetta lined the five shot glasses up in front of the two of us. She grabbed another bottle of Vodka, pouring it into an empty glass. Then she turned around to grab a different bottle of Vodka, pouring that into a glass as well. For the next three shot glasses, she did the same, each with different flavored Vodkas.

"Thank you, Rose." July said as he pushed his own shot glass in the mix. He shifted the glasses in different orders, rearranging their positions so you wouldn't know which flavor Vodka was which.

"There's six shot glasses of Vodka. All of them are different flavors. This game is all about taste and how you use your tongue, but if you get the flavor wrong, that's another shot for you." He winked.

I laughed. "Yeah, sounds like fun and all, but I have to drive home." I showed him my car keys and he pursed his lips.

"Did you come here to drink or what?" He asked and for the second time meeting him, I felt that he was challenging me once again. Too bad I wasn't about to risk it.

"I came here because your uncle wanted me to discuss business with you." I informed, folding my hands on the counter.

"And he's not here, now is he?" July tilted his head in his hand, raising a brow at me. I swallowed my words because he had a point. Where was Hernandez anyway?

He leaned up, slapping the counter top, "So, that means, less talk, more drinks." He pushed three glasses towards me, a daring smirk slipping across his firm, ample lips. I looked to him with a stern, set smile, attempting to express the fact that I was not about to comply to his little game, no matter what he said, or did.

"Since you want to play tough, I'll go first." He rolled his eyes, grabbing a shot glass. "First, you gotta taste it to make sure I get the flavor right."

I came him a quizzical look and he merely shrugged before plucking his index finger into the glass and holding it out for me. I'm sure that since I've been sitting at this bar with him, I've been making an array of different facial expressions that if someone wanted to paint my portrait, my face would have multiple shades.