A/N – Hello everyone. Here's the next chapter. Just a side note, things are going to get interesting once we get passed the wedding. I just wanted to establish the relationship between Cloud and Tess before I wreck their world…evil laugh…

Warning – This chapter contains graphic sex.

Disclaimer – Cloud Strife and other characters and locations from Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children are the property of Square-Enix. I own nothing but Tessa and her wacky family.

Chapter 12 – Trust Me

Saturday, August 17 continued

At 6:00 Cloud and I met Mom and Dad for dinner at Leon's Steak House in the revolving restaurant on the top floor of the hotel. I had hoped it would only be the four of us, but it turned out to be more than that. Grandma, Cassie, Trevor and his parents were all sitting at the table when we got there.

We made the rounds and Trevor introduced Cloud and I to his parents. This was the first time I was meeting them, even though I had known Trevor for the two years Cassie dated him.

The two open seats at the opposite end of the table were near Grandma. I greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. "Hi, Grandma. I didn't think you'd make it here all the way from Mideel."

She smiled. "I wouldn't miss any of my grandchildren's weddings." She gave me a once over. "Look at how you've grown."

"It's only been six months since the last time you saw me." I laughed as I sat opposite her, leaving Cloud the end of the table. "This is my boyfriend, Cloud."

She greeted him with a sweet smile. "Hello, young man."

Cloud gave her a small smile. "Nice to meet you, ma'am."

She waved a hand. "Oh, stop that. Call me, Winny."

"What're you drinking, Grandma?" I asked as she raised her glass to take a long drink.

"Scotch. I can't drink anything else." She winked at Cloud. "Have one with me, dear."

Cloud grimaced. "Oh…uh…I can't. Not scotch. I think it makes me talk too much."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that."

"Yeah, there's plenty wrong."

I tried to conceal my smile, remembering how he unknowingly relayed a private matter to Tifa the last time he had drunk scotch. "He can't have tequila, either," I added with a wink.

Cloud frowned in my direction. "I'll just have my usual beer."

During dinner, while Mom and Dad were busy discussing things with Trevor's parents, Cloud and I were content keeping Grandma company. I was pretty sure Cloud was charming the heck out of her, considering the pleasant smile on her face as she listened to him talk about the SOLDIER academy.

"So what rank were you before the units were dismantled?" she asked Cloud.

"Oh…I never made it."

"Never made it? Why not?"

"I mean, I passed both the written and physical exams, but…they told me I failed because I had a bad reaction to the first Mako injection."

"Then why in the world are your eyes like that?"

I hoped Cloud didn't mind answering Grandma's questions. He didn't look distressed, otherwise I would have told Grandma to butt out…in a nice way, of course.

"Well, the truth is, I later found out I didn't have a reaction from the first trial. The Professor in charge of the injections decided to give me a full dose."

"Oh, you poor dear. I certainly hope that wicked Professor was severely punished for what he did to you."

Cloud shrugged. "I ran into the Professor a few years later and let's just say he won't be conducting anymore research for Shinra or anyone else for that matter."

"Good for you." She raised her glass. "To your continued success as a delivery boy and may you and my granddaughter find eternal happiness together." She took a drink.

Cloud and I exchanged a glance. For a second I didn't think he was going to drink to her toast, but he raised the beer bottle to his lips and drank. I followed suit and took a sip of my cocktail.

I couldn't believe Cloud ate a huge steak, plus soup, a baked potato and half a loaf of bread. Where did he put it all and stay so fit and lean? Before he started cutting into his steak, he glanced at my plate. I pretended not to notice as he changed the way he held his knife and fork. He obviously didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Grandma.

As we all had dessert, I spied Aunt Claudia, Brenda and Pete being seated at a table not too far away.

Cloud noticed them, too and he leaned toward me. "Is she going out tonight with you girls, too?"

"No, thank God Cassie didn't invite her out with us."

"Good because I don't wanna get a phone call saying you're in jail for beating the shit out of her."

Grandma shook her head. "Did you see who that idiot cousin of yours brought with her?"

So Grandma obviously noticed. I shrugged indifferently. "Yeah, I saw him."

She placed a hand on Cloud's arm. "Now don't you worry none, Cloud. Tessa has absolutely no feelings for that other one, the little prick."

Cloud snorted, trying to hold back a laugh at her choice of words. "I'm not worried."

"Good. Besides, I like you much better." She leaned closer to whisper to him. "But if you should decide to kick his ass anytime soon, you'll let me know in advance so I can watch him go down, right?"

Cloud smiled at her. "Sure thing, Winny."

I rolled my eyes. But it made me happy knowing Grandma liked Cloud.

At 8:30 Cloud and I went back to our room to freshen up. We were all going our separate ways. Me, Tammy and some of the girls were taking Cassie out, while the guys were taking Trevor. But first Cassie was opening up some personal gifts in one of the bars.

When Cloud and I got in the elevator, he gave me a serious look. "You be careful out there. Don't pick up any strange men."

I surprised myself by boldly grabbing him and forcing my tongue down his throat. He didn't seem to mind the intrusion and his hand snuck under my miniskirt to squeeze my right butt cheek. I wanted him to think of me and nobody else, no matter where him and the guys were going. When we parted I gave him a meaningful look.

"Don't worry, Tess. I promise I'll be good. Trust me, okay?"

I kept repeating to myself that I trusted him.

The elevator doors opened on the second floor where I was getting off. Cloud was going down to the lobby where the rest of the guys were meeting.

After I stepped off the elevator, I turned back to him. He winked at me before the doors slid closed. I smiled to myself because Cloud was shamelessly sporting my love bites all over his neck…for all the world to see.

With only six, or was it eleven, tequilas in me, and a couple other shots, I couldn't believe I wasn't walking straight. So it couldn't possibly be the alcohol. Maybe it was the high-heeled shoes I had on. They weren't exactly made for walking on cobblestone streets.

Tammy found my predicament quite amusing and laughed hysterically as I stumbled twice and almost fell on my face.

"Stop laughing at me!" I yelled at her, but then started laughing myself.

After we left the hotel earlier, we went down the block to where the bars and restaurants lined the street on both sides. People milled the sidewalks, going in and out of the different places and we decided to do the same. Each bar we went to I had a shot of tequila. I wanted to get plastered because I didn't want to be thinking about what Cloud was up to. He told me to trust him and I wanted to…but what if he was too drunk to know what he was doing? Damn…

The more I thought about it, the more depressed I became…and the more I stumbled on the fucking cobblestone walk.

"Hey, look," said Cassie from somewhere behind me.

I turned around to see where Cassie was pointing. Across the street, in front of a place called 'Lamplighter", was Trevor. He was on his knees, bent over with his head in the bushes. Crouching next to him was Cloud.

"Trevor!" Cassie ran across the street.

Cloud quickly got to his feet and caught her before she toppled over poor Trevor, who looked like he was puking his head off.

The rest of us went across the street, nearly getting run over by a psycho cab driver cursing at us in some strange language, or maybe he was complimenting us. I couldn't tell the difference.

"What's going on?" I asked Cloud.

"Too many tequilas."

I sputtered out a laugh. "Ha! What a lightweight!"

Cloud smiled at me. "And how many have you had?"

"Six or seven. Or eight." I scrunched my face in thought. "Well, I might have had eleven, but I'm not too sure about it."

He shook his head and laughed.

I gave Cloud a once over. His clothes were still on and didn't look messed in any way. He didn't have any strange lipstick marks on him. "So what's going on inside?" I dodged Cloud's hand before he could stop me from pushing my way through the doorway.

I presumed it was a strip club, considering the neon sign outside had an image of two big boobs. My jaw dropped when I entered the dark, smoke-filled room. There were topless waitresses serving drinks. Four completely naked women on stage were grinding their pelvises against some brass poles and each other. Hairy, dirty, greasy men were sitting along the stage, leering at the women. Then in various dark corners were a bunch of loveseats where more women were giving naked lap dances. What a freak show.

Then I turned to Cloud and gave him a suspicious look.

He held his hands up in defense and shook his head. "I swear I haven't done anything except keep Trevor out of trouble."

I looked into his glowing eyes and even in my drunken state, I knew he was telling me the truth. I gushed with pride. My boyfriend wasn't a cheater.

"The guys were making him drink all kinds of shit," Cloud went on. "He doesn't even know his own name. I was making sure he didn't make any mistakes, if you know what I mean."

"Where's Kyle?" asked Tammy as she came up behind me.

"Playing cards in the other room." Then he put his hand on her arm. "Don't worry. There's nothing going on in there. Honest."

Just as he finished the sentence, Kyle walked out of the room, stuffing some money in his pocket. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Tammy and I. "What're you two doing here?"

"We want to see strippers," I blurted out.

Kyle laughed. "What?!"

The sound of a power tool echoed over the raunchy strip music. We all turned toward the stage and all jaws dropped.

Tammy busted out laughing. "Oh my God! Look at that!"

Cloud grabbed my arm and pulled me away. "Time to leave."

I tried to pull my arm away as I stared toward the stage. "Wait, I wanna watch this!"

"No, you don't." Cloud wrapped his arms around me from behind and lifted me up to drag me outside.

When we were outside, we looked around for Trevor, but he was nowhere to be found. We figured Cassie must have taken him back to the hotel.

Tammy and Kyle followed us out and she was laughing hysterically. "I can't believe they do that in front of people. That was so fucking funny!" She was referring to the crude live entertainment.

"Come on, let's head back," suggested Kyle. "I think we've had enough excitement for one evening. Right, Cloud?"

"We kept the groom out of trouble," replied Cloud. "Our job is finished."

As we walked down the cobblestone street, I stopped to take off my shoes. "My feet are killing me."

Cloud suddenly picked me up in his arms and began to carry me.

I wrapped my arms around his neck. "You're going to carry me all the way back to the hotel?"

He smiled. "All the way."

Tammy and Kyle had gone ahead of us and were already going through the main entrance when Cloud and I approached the hotel. He put me back on the ground to walk on my own.

I opened my purse and started digging through it for my card, which I needed or they wouldn't let me back in. "Uh oh."

"Uh oh, what?" Cloud asked as he turned to me.

"I can't find my card." I dropped to my knees to empty my purse on the ground and started rifling through all my stuff, looking for my room card.

Cloud crouched next to me and picked something up out of the pile. "What the fuck is this?"

I stared at the penis-shaped vibrator he held and then yanked it out of his hand. "That's mine. I won it."

"I'm afraid to ask what you had to do to win it."

"A blowjob with no hands."

He frowned at me. "A what?!"

"It's a shot you drink without using your hands, Cloud."

"Oh…for a minute…"

"What, you thought I blew some guy?"

He helped me stuff everything back into my purse after I successfully found my room card. Then we walked through the revolving door.

A security clerk scanned our cards and motioned for us to put our things on the security machine.

When I put my purse on the conveyor belt with the x-ray machine, I watched the face of the attendant as he stared at the resulting images. He frowned for a second and then gave me a nervous glance. As my purse came out the other end, Cloud grabbed it and shoved it into my hands before walking with me through the lobby.

I laughed outloud as we stopped in front of the elevator. "Did you see the look on that poor guy's face? He's probably never seen such a huge penis."

Cloud shrugged indifferently as the elevator doors opened. "It's not that big."

After getting in the elevator and waiting for the doors to close, I went into my purse and pulled out the vibrator. "Are you kidding me? This thing is enormous." When I waved it in front of his face, he smirked. "What's that look for?" I asked him.

"You have no idea what you're doing to me holding that thing like that."

Just then the elevator stopped on the second floor and we both turned as the doors slid open. An elderly couple stood just outside the doors. It took me about ten seconds to realize how the situation looked and I quickly shoved the vibrator behind my back. They cautiously stepped into the elevator and turned away from us. As the elevator started moving again, I looked at Cloud. He was looking down and holding a hand over his mouth, trying to keep from laughing.

Luckily the elderly couple got off two floors later. As soon as the doors closed again, I couldn't hold back my laughter any longer. But what fascinated me more than anything was the sound of Cloud's own hysterical laughter. I had never seen him laugh so hard.

When the elevator stopped on our floor, we both stumbled out, still laughing uncontrollably. In front of our door, Cloud fumbled with the key card, finally getting it into the slot.

We entered our room and I nearly fell. Cloud caught me in his arms. We were both still laughing and he hugged me with his back against the wall. As our laughter began to die down, I started unbuttoning his shirt with one hand and continued to hold the vibrator in the other. I yanked the shirt out of his slacks and looked up at him. He looked at me with amusement in his eyes as I raked my nails over his bare chest.

"Why're you looking at me like that?" I asked with a smile.

He tilted his head toward the object in my hand. "What're you going to do with that thing?"

"It's a sex toy so I'm going to play with it." My other hand drifted down his hard torso until it reached his belt. I undid it and then undid the front of his slacks. Forget the toy, I wanted to play with the real thing. I handed him the vibrator to free my other hand and proceeded to place wet kisses on his chest. As I moved my lips down his torso, I heard him moan erratically. I lowered myself to my knees in front of him, running my tongue along the happy trail beneath his bellybutton. With a firm yank, I pulled his pants and boxers down together, exposing him in all of his glory.

When I wrapped my hand around his shaft, he bounced the back of his head against the wall and groaned. I stroked him first until he grew as hard as he could possibly get. Then I brushed my thumb over the weeping tip before slowly sliding him into my mouth.

Cloud bounced the back of his head off the wall several more times with a lengthy groan. "Ahh, fuck, Tess…"

Five seconds later he shot his load all over my face. It didn't take long at all.

As I rose up, Cloud reached for a teeshirt on the back of a chair and wiped my face. Then he leaned in and kissed me, tongue and all. "My turn now."

"What do you have in mind?"

Cloud raised the vibrator and looked at it for a few seconds before turning his eyes toward me with a sly smile.

"Oh no you don't." I pulled away from him and scrambled backward.

Cloud toppled forward, tripping on his slacks still around his ankles.

I laughed hysterically, jumping up on the bed and dropping to my knees while watching him struggle to get out of his clothes. Then he got up off the floor and climbed on the bed on his knees. "You are not going to use that thing on me," I warned.

"You said you wanted to play with it," he said as he moved closer to me.

I moved further back until the headboard stopped me. "Not the way you're thinking."

Cloud came closer and kissed me. "I won't stick it in you."

"Yeah, sure you won't."

"Trust me, you're not losing your virginity to this thing." He tossed it aside and unbuttoned my blouse, sliding it off my shoulders along with my bra.

I unzipped the side of my mini-skirt and fell on the bed. Cloud pulled off my skirt and then yanked off my thong in one quick motion. There I was, naked in front of him again. He nudged my legs wide apart and buried his face between them. I moaned outloud. The feeling was excruciatingly wonderful and I knew I wasn't going to last very long. Even though I wanted to just hurry up and climax, I tried to hold back, knowing he enjoying himself playing this way. But after a few minutes it was no use. I let the wave of intense bliss wash over me. No longer timid about expressing my pleasure in front of him, I squealed out his name in ecstasy.

My limbs felt weak after it was over. Finally he crawled up beside me and kissed me long and hard. Tasting both of our releases in our mouths was a bit freaky.

After a few minutes of slow kissing, Cloud pulled away and rolled over on his back. We laid side by side in silence for awhile.

"Is it hot in here or what?" I asked without really looking for a response.

"Yeah, but I think it's because we're fucked up. Let's go outside," suggested Cloud.

We got off the bed and walked naked out onto the balcony where a nice cool breeze was blowing in from the sea.

Cloud reclined on one of the deck chairs and dragged me down on his lap so I was straddling him.

I leaned forward and our lips locked in a passionate exchange of hot, wet kisses. Maybe it was the tequila talking or just my own genuine curiosity, but I found myself asking him something I knew I would never have asked if I were sober. "So tell me something, Cloud…since you weren't getting any…what did you do to get off?"

He sputtered out a laugh. "Now why would you ask me something like that?"

I shrugged innocently.

"I did what every guy does. Jerk off four times a day."

"Four times a day?"

"That was on a busy work day. When it was slow, I had time to get off six or seven times. I even yanked my pecker while riding Fenrir on long trips."

I smiled and leaned forward to tug on his lower lip with my teeth. "You're such a liar."

He returned my smile and chuckled. His hands drifted down to my thighs and he caressed them up and down. "And what did you do?"

I sucked on his lips, unable to believe that the thoughts in my head were actually about to spill from my mouth. "I touched myself." I began to roll my hips on his lap, rubbing my heated center against his hardening shaft.

He closed his eyes with a sensual sigh. "Yeah?"

"I did it after you dropped me off that night when we made out for the first time in Midgar."

He opened his eyes again and looked up at me. "You were thinking of me?"

"You made me so hot that night, I pretended it was you touching me." I moaned at the exquisite feel of his hard shaft pressing against my dripping cleft.

A few minutes later my orgasm came first…while Cloud panted and moved urgently against me. In the next instant, with a frazzled grunt he shot his load between us.

I kissed him with a smile. "Mmm…That was fun."

He smiled back and deepened the kiss. Then with a satisfied sigh, Cloud curled me up against him.

I hugged him tightly, feeling so comfortable and secure lying naked with him. I didn't think I would ever feel like this with anyone. As he kissed my forehead, I pressed my face under his chin.

We held each other for a long time on the deck chair, letting the breeze cool the sweat on our bodies. After awhile we went inside and crawled in bed. Cloud was asleep in an instant.