Tequila
All those little shooters
How I love to drink them down
Come on bartender lets have another round
Well the music is playing
And my spirits are high
Tomorrow might be painful
But tonight we're going to fly—Shelly West, Jose Cuervo
Sometimes a guy could be too nice.
Cloud had agreed, for reasons he could not pinpoint at the moment but he suspected several high gravity beers had been involved, to work on an old property of Vincent's. The thing was about to go on the market and needed just a few finishing touches, and since Cloud was the only one in the group with any renovation sense whatsoever, he had been talked into the job.
It was a favor. Friends did favors for each other and there was no doubt Vincent would be good for it, but the air conditioner in the old house had croaked on the week of a record heat wave—the constant breakdowns and maintenance being one reason the former Turk was unloading it—and now Cloud was stuck there waiting on the final inspection, in the miserable heat. He alternated between the kitchen by the fan, which felt cool until the confined space made it feel oppressive, and the living room floor which he pretended was cool because it was low and dark, and the porch swing which he convinced his sweat soaked brain into thinking had a breeze.
It wasn't working. The whole place was the approximate temperature of bathwater. He drank cold lemonade, ice water, and beer but that just made him have to pee. He checked his cell and it was exactly nine minutes later than the last time he had checked his cell.
Hell felt like this. No, hell was probably cooler. It was certainly better populated, considering his choice in friends; this was the house Vincent had inhabited just post coffin, obviously. The nearest neighbor, assuming he or she was even alive, was not even on line of sight.
He saw a trail of rising dust coming down the road. The inspector, maybe? But he wasn't expected until this afternoon. He had finished a little early and was now sitting on the porch, dying of boredom. It wouldn't be so bad if the place had cable and wasn't the temperature of a ceramics kiln. No, as the vehicle approached he knew who it was, even before he heard the loud music, saw the vibrant red hair reflecting through the open window.
Open, because the piece of shit car Reno drove, even though he could easily afford much better, had the same air conditioning as the house.
He pulled up like a man who had failed parking on his driver's ed test. Hell, he probably had never taken a driver's ed test. "Working on your tan, babe?"
"No, on my heatstroke. The AC is busted."
"Well, that's some shit. At least we can get drunk and forget about it. I brought lunch!" He proudly displayed a case of beer, a bottle of tequila, a bag of limes, and as an afterthought, the extra large combo from Taco Cocina. Spreading out paper towels from the bag as a makeshift tablecloth, he opened a beer for his boyfriend and got down to business. He muttered something incomprehensible and stopped to brush tortilla crumbs and lettuce off his shirt, finally pulling it off entirely.
Cloud didn't mind the sudden improvement in scenery. It beat watching the dust. He leaned back against the stair railing and bit into his own taco. "What was that you just said?"
"I said this place makes fucking awesome tacos."
"They do. Pass the salsa?" They gnawed their way through the food and beer until nothing was left but litter and carnage, which Reno deposited into the collection he already had going in his car. He returned with a knife for the limes, a salt shaker, a shot glass, and an evil grin. He put the salt on his hand and before he could do anything, Cloud climbed over and licked it off for him, drinking down the tequila.
"Well then, might as well make it a proper body shot, right? Reno put the lime in his mouth; Cloud settled into his lap and slowly, thoroughly sucked it, licking up the juice from Reno's sweat damped neck.
"Sorry. I was thirsty." Cloud grinned.
"Well now, so am I." Dispensing with the salt shaker entirely, he gave Cloud's neck a slow, leisurely lick from the collarbone to the ear. After shooting the tequila he tongued the lime in Cloud's mouth until they tossed it to the side in favor of a long, fiery kiss. "Wait, what were we doing?"
"Each other, I think. Um, no. Tequila. Lie back a little." Cloud traced little circles with his tongue on Reno's chest, around his nipples and under his collarbone. When he leaned into his mouth, Reno shook his head.
"Drink next."
"I don't think I need any more tequila."
"It's the rules."
His head was swimming a little, from lust and heat and alcohol. But he took a swig straight from the bottle and leaned down to bite the lime from Reno's soft lips, relishing the cool tartness of it as he plunged into his lover's mouth once again. Gods, the inspector is going to pull up and find me half naked with Reno, unconscious in a puddle of my own spit.
When they came up for air, Reno was unbuttoning his shorts and stripping them both naked, pushing the tequila bottle over to the side so it wouldn't spill. Priorities. As an afterthought he dug through the pocket of the discarded garment for some lube.
"Okay, now I know you didn't just come out here for lunch."
"You know me well, don't you?" They kissed again, tasting like salsa and limes and sweat. A board bit into Cloud's hip and he shifted, grinding himself into Reno by accident. "Oh fuck, babe, don't do that. Please. Feels too damn good." His hands were shaking as he pushed one, then more fingers up into Cloud. When he was satisfied that they were both not only ready but half mad with sheer horniness, he pressed gently against Cloud intending to enter him slowly.
But Cloud had other ideas. Fairly drunk on tequila and lust, he'd had enough foreplay and grabbed Reno's slim ass, slamming them together with a groan. Gonna feel that one later. Don't care. So what if the ride home was a little…tender. "Harder. Need you," he rasped.
"I aim to please." Reno meant it jokingly but the jest went out of his voice. Cloud in the grip of passion always awed him, the man was just so beautiful and he loved him so much, he did want to please him, did want to bring him to that peak over and over. He reached down tenderly and stroked his face, just once, before thrusting into him with such abandon that neither lasted more than a few hard strokes before coming in breathless gasps, reveling in each other's touch.
Cloud winced a little as Reno pulled out. Yeah, he was gonna be sore later. "Shit, the inspector is supposed to be here in ten minutes!"
Reno howled with laughter. "And we're naked! And kind of a mess, yo."
The old house only had one bathroom which might have served one reclusive angst ridden ex-Turk just fine, but it was damned inconvenient now. Cloud did the best he could as quickly as he could, while Reno washed up in the small kitchen, then cleaned up any evidence they might have left on the porch. When Cloud returned, Reno was sitting on the swing as innocent as a child.
If a child had any business with a shot glass of tequila, and a cigarette lighter.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Always wanted to know if you could set this shit on fire or is that just grain alcohol and 151 rum, yo?"
"Reno! This is a home inspection! It's bad enough we just fucked on the porch, now you're trying to burn it down?"
"Damn it won't…shit…can't get it to light anyway. Maybe it's in the breeze. Let me try…"
A car pulled down the driveway and Cloud grabbed the glass and lighter, shoving the latter into his pocket and having nothing else to do with the tequila, drank it. It made him feel better. He glared at Reno to little effect.
A man in a full business suit exited the car and approached them. "Uh, the air conditioner is broken. This is probably going to be a quick and uncomfortable tour."
It was both. The man took it in good spirits but he was happy to get out of there and Cloud suspected the house passed just because it would have taken longer to find anything wrong with it. He sympathized; they wanted nothing more than to leave, themselves, and find somewhere with cool air and privacy.
"Look babe, it's over an hour back to Edge, we've been drinking like fish, and I saw a little mom and pop motel just back on the main highway. What say we pick up a couple clean shirts at a drugstore, stay overnight and find a nice, cold dark bar to hole up in?" If the tongue in his ear was any indication, that wasn't all Reno had in mind.
Cloud leaned in for a kiss. "Don't forget the tequila."