Chapter One

Felicity Smoak strode into the Queen Consolidated building, muttering curses as she made her way to her office. Some worker at her favorite coffee shop got her order wrong, and she didn't have the time to wait for him to make another one. Without her coffee, she was a terror - even she couldn't deny that one. Then, she was finding it impossible to park her car, seeing as basically all of the spaces in the parking lot were occupied. She swore she had this problem every morning. Now, she had five minutes to get upstairs for a meeting with the top members of Queen Consolidated that would most likely make her sick to her stomach.

"Ms. Smoak?"

She turned around, coming face to face with her assistant, Barry.

"What is it?"

"The meeting that you had scheduled at 8:30 started ten minutes ago," he informed her, looking scared out of his mind.

Was she really that intimidating?

"What do you mean it started ten minutes ago?" she snapped, entering her office and scooping up her papers roughly. "Why would they do that?"

"I don't know. Mr. Queen just sent out an email notifying everyone."

Her head lifted from her busy hands, blood rushing as she heard his name. Of course he was behind this. Everything he did only seemed to infuriate her. Ever since she got promoted to head of the IT Department and had to start attending the board meetings, she got to see how his input was destroying the company. Okay, maybe that was a little exaggerated. Since he took over as CEO after his father's death, the company actually started to do better. But still, she didn't agree with how he chose to handle things.

To put it simply, she hated him. He was obnoxious, self-centered, arrogant, and rude. He walked around like he was royalty, and with a name like Queen it probably wasn't hard to do as much. He yelled at his assistants, barked out unnecessary orders, and took credit for everyone else's hard work. It wasn't difficult for her to come to the conclusion that all he did was sit behind a big desk and formulate ideas for how his workers could keep his company successful.

Yeah, she hated him.

The funny thing was, they had never even spoken directly. As a matter of fact, she wasn't sure he had the slightest idea who she was. Unlike her normal, outspoken self, in the face of him and all the other higher-ups, she was quiet. She rarely voiced her opinion, let alone disagreed with something. She blended into the background. She was sure he hadn't looked her way once in all of her time at the company.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Smoak," Barry apologized, shaking profusely. "I tried to call you, but you didn't answer your phone. Which, I'm not saying is your fault because you can't be expected to answer you phone every single time. I just-"

That was the moment she stopped listening to Barry's rambling, and slapped a hand onto her hardwood desk. Fuck, fuck, fuck! She had forgotten her phone. She imagined it now, resting innocently and forgotten by her bedside. That phone was her life. There was no way she could survive the day without it. But, it looked like she didn't have a choice.

"Can you just take care of my calls until I come back please?" she asked, cutting Barry off.

"Uh, of course," he nodded, watching as she began walking away. "Good luck with the meeting, Ms. Smoak."

Her heels clacked against the tile as she made her way to the elevator. As she waited for it to open, she began to prepare herself for the humility she was about to endure. Most likely, she would be scarred for life. She realized that there was nothing she could do about it once she was riding up to the top floor. When the doors opened, she let out one last reassuring breath before heading for the conference room.

The walls were made of glass, so as soon as she rounded that corner, all heads turned to look at her. Well, all heads except for Oliver Queen's, who was currently speaking to the group with his back to her. Her stomach sunk. She pushed open the glass door, ducking her head as she found her seat. Thankfully, Oliver didn't pause in his speech, and the others focused back in on what he was saying. As quietly as possible, she arranged her papers together, taking out her notepad in case she wanted to take notes. Her favorite red pen was sticking out of the spiral of her notepad, and she took it out to chew on the top absent-mindedly.

"...and so that's why cutting back on the funds for the IT Department would be a smart choice for the company right now," Oliver said, making Felicity's eyes jump up from her paper to stare at his speaking figure.

"What?!" she exclaimed, causing all heads to turn her way.

Everyone gave her that snotty, my-haircut-cost-more-than-your-entire-apartment look. Oliver Queen just raised his eyebrows at her outburst, obviously not used to people speaking out against him. On any other day, she would have been embarrassed. Hell, she would have never even spoken up. But on this morning - the morning that every possible thing that could go wrong, did - she wasn't backing down.

"You can't cut the funds for the IT Department," she continued, locked in a staring match with the devil himself.

His eyebrows were furrowed now. "I'm sorry, but who are you?"

His head swiveled around the room as if he really had no clue whether she was a worker here, or some loon from off the street. Her ego should have been bruised, but like earlier mentioned, this was not an ordinary morning for her. And she really could not care less what Oliver Queen thought of her.

"Felicity Smoak, head of the IT Department," she introduced with importance.

"Ah," he nodded in understanding. "Well, Ms. Smoak, if you had been here on time, you would have been able to hear my reasoning behind it."

Low blow. Even for him. She still cringed.

"I would have been here on time, Mr. Queen," she began, watching as a glint of amusement flashed across his eyes for a split second as she said his name, "if you hadn't changed the meeting time."

"I sent out an email," he justified simply.

She plastered on the smile she used when talking to relatives she saw once every few years. "Unfortunately, I left my phone at home."

"That is unfortunate," he agreed. "But it's also not my problem."

She had never wanted to slap a person more than she did right now. His smug smirk had her nails digging into into the heels of her palm as she tried to keep her calm composure.

"No, it's not. Your problem is with me disagreeing about your intentions with the IT Department."

His face remained even as she saw him concede. "Okay, fine. Enlighten me."

"Well, according to recent polls, the IT Department at Queen Consolidated is striving compared to the other departments. What do you expect to happen when our funds are cut?"

"I'm sure the department will be fine."

"That's an awfully big chance to take, Mr. Queen."

"What can I say? I'm a risk taker, Ms. Smoak."

God, he was so smug. The look he gave her said that he was going to do this no matter what she said. At this point, she was only embarrassing herself. And even she knew when it was time to retreat. So, folding her lips together, she accepted that she'd lost this battle.

"Now, onto more pressing matters," he continued, shooting one last smirk her way.

She zoned him out. If he said another word after that last sentence, she couldn't recall it. Just the sound of his voice was giving her a headache. Hopefully the meeting wouldn't last much longer. Then, she could take this up with Walter.

Walter was basically her best friend at the company. Not that she had a lot of friends at the company, because really she only had a handful. But Walter definitely outranked all of them. He's the one who hired her. He's the one who promoted her. He's the one who heard her out.

He was also Oliver's stepfather, but she chose not to dwell on that.

Once the meeting ended, Felicity rushed back to her office. She logged onto her email to ask Walter if she could come by his office. Sure, she could have just asked him in the conference room, but she didn't want to be in there a second longer than she had to. Everyone in there had been staring her down more than usual, and she knew it was because she'd stepped out of bounds in there, but she didn't regret it. Plus, Oliver had already been making his way over to him at the conclusion of the meeting.

Barry knocked on her door just after the email was sent, hesitantly coming in after her okay. He knew the meeting had left her in a bad mood without a word, and had been extra cautious around her so far. She'd noticed, but only because he always got that way when she was upset. It was crazy to think they were only a few years apart.

"Ms. Smoak, there were two calls while you were gone."

"Who were they from and what did they want?" she prompted, eyes glued to her inbox.

"You have a doctor's appointment next week," he read from his sticky note, glancing up at her before he continued. "And Sara wants to remind you about meeting her for drinks on Friday."

Felicity sighed, nodding her head. After what had just happened in that conference room, there was no way she'd have time for a doctor's appointment next week. Looks like she would have to reschedule. Drinks with Sara was suddenly the thing she was looking forward to most now.

"Okay, thank you, Barry."

"Your welcome, Ms. Smoak," he replied, shutting her office door lightly.

Felicity watched her computer screen, bouncing her knee, when the response email from Walter suddenly appeared. She clicked on it, reading through it quickly. He told her that he was free to talk, and to head right over. Without grabbing anything, she speed-walked over to the elevators, and then rode up to his office. He was sitting behind his desk when she walked in, wearing the polite smile he always wore in her presence.

"Felicity, please sit down," he instructed, gesturing towards one of the leather chairs facing his desk.

"Thank you for seeing me, Walter," she said, taking a seat and crossing one leg over the other.

"It's no problem," he assured, getting straight down to business. "I'm assuming this is about the cuts on your department."

She nodded. "Yes, and let me just be the first to say that I strongly disagree with this decision."

He was speaking before she could get anything else out. "You're actually the only one to say you disagree with the decision."

Felicity scoffed, completely baffled with the thought. "You're telling me no one else is concerned about what this could do the department?"

"Mr. Queen made some good points at the meeting. His plan is clear and well thought out. There are some things he kept to himself, but the details of it all really weren't necessary to get the point across."

"So, I'm guessing you're on board with this whole thing, too," she muttered, adjusting her glasses.

"There's nothing I can do to stop it, Felicity. The final decision is up to Oliver."

"Well, you can talk to him," she suggested. "Maybe you can convince him to cut the funds for another department."

Walter opened his mouth to speak, stopping at the abrupt sound of knocking. Felicity turned around in sync with the door opening. Standing there was the bane of her existence, Oliver Queen. Kill her now.

"Walter, I-" he paused, taking in her presence. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you had company, Walter."

"It's fine, Oliver. What can I help you with?"

He glanced at her, frowning subtly. "I'll just come back later."

Felicity stood, blood boiling just from five seconds near that man. "I was just leaving. I'll talk to you later, Walter."

She walked towards Oliver, eyes locked with his to show that he intimidated her in no way. He nodded his head to her politely, holding the door open as she stepped through it.

"Ms. Smoak," he murmured.

"Mr. Queen," she returned, feeling his eyes on her as she walked off.

His gaze was hot on her skin, and she turned around briefly to see that she was correct, and not imagining it.

She smirked. That bastard was checking her out.

After the meeting, Oliver was damn near exhausted. He didn't get any sleep the night before, having been stressing about the outcome of the meeting. If he had known everyone would be on board with his proposal, he would have slept a decent amount. Well, almost everyone.

There was the one person who spoke out against him. Felicity Smoak. He recognized her from other meetings. She never spoke up, so he never questioned her presence. In fact, he had gotten it in his head that she was one of the executives. Finding out she was the head of the IT Department caught him by surprise, for more reason than one.

He tried to talk to Walter when the meeting concluded, but someone stopped him along the way. A few people lingered around to speak with him before he was able to make his getaway. Then, he headed for Walter's office, knowing they had things to discuss. He opened the door, cut short in his words at the sight of Felicity Smoak sitting across from Walter. They exchanged brief words before she was making her way out, shooting daggers at him the whole way.

God, she hated him.

He meant to just make sure she was really leaving, but became distracted by her ass. It had to be illegal to have an ass like that. The skirt she had on was tight, and he couldn't help the tinge of arousal that rushed through his veins. He was sure he was burning holes straight through her, but the view was too incredible to turn away from. Walter's voice snapped him out of it.

"You can come in now, Oliver."

Oliver cleared his throat to cover up his embarrassment of being caught. He shut the door behind him, taking the seat Felicity had just vacated.

"I didn't know you were so close with Ms. Smoak," Oliver told him, adjusting in his seat.

"I hired her," Walter informed him. "She's a very intelligent woman."

"I'm guessing her current position is of your doing as well."

"She earned that promotion. She works harder than almost any employee here," Walter praised, fixing Oliver with a look. "But you didn't come here to talk about Ms. Smoak, did you?"

Oliver gave him a tight smile, shaking his head. "No. I actually came here to discuss the meeting. I think the overall response was great."

"It was," Walter agreed. "Your mother will be pleased to hear it."

"Let's not get her too excited until it actually works. Now that I know we have the support, we can put the plan into action right away. Hopefully we'll start seeing results within the next few months."

"That's ambitious," Walter commented.

Oliver shrugged, his lips twitching with the pride he was trying to conceal. "I have big plans for this company."

Felicity furiously typed away at the computer, decoding yet another virus. She used to love doing this, but she had to so frequently now, she started to grow sick of it. Just as she finished another one, there was a sharp rap on her door. She looked up, seeing Barry standing sheepishly by the doorway.

"Ms. Smoak, I'm going to head home for the day," he told her, tugging on his laptop bag strap.

She glanced over at the clock, realizing how late it was. It didn't really surprise her though. She was always one of the last people to leave the office. There really wasn't much excitement at home, and work helped cover up the loneliness that came with an empty house. Sure, she did have friends. Sara was her best one and they spent nearly every weekend together. Unfortunately, Sara had a night job at some club, so hanging out with her after work was never really an option, except for the couple days a week she got off.

"Okay, Barry. See you tomorrow," she dismissed, giving him a small smile.

She knew Barry only stayed as late as he did because of her. He was an excellent assistant and she knew he was going to go far in life. She didn't think he belonged in the IT Department. She thought he should be pursuing a job in science. Maybe she would talk to him about it sometime. She could put in a good word to Walter, and maybe get him transferred. Well, it was something to think about.

It only took fifteen more minutes of effortless decoding before there was another knock on her door. Her stomach sank because after Barry left, there really shouldn't be anyone at the office.

"Come in," she called, taking hold of a pen.

The door opened slowly, revealing Oliver Queen. What the hell did he want? She didn't even try to hide her disgust. She rolled her eyes, setting the pen back down. He shut the door behind him, walking until he was standing in front of her desk.

"Ms. Smoak, I was surprised to see you were still here," he said, wearing a smile.

"I stay late," she explained. "Something I'm sure you've never heard of before. Did you fall asleep at your desk and see my lights on your way out?"

He let out a laugh, ignoring the harshness of her words. "I actually stay late quite often."

She scoffed. "Forgive me, but I find that a little hard to believe."

He shrugged. "Most people do."

That caught her by surprise, but he didn't seem to notice. "What exactly are you doing here, Oliver?"

"Oliver? Are we on a first name basis now?" he asked, seeing her not so amused expression. "Well, Felicity, I was on my way out, when I noticed your lights on from downstairs. I came back up to see if I could walk you to your car."

He'd come back up for her? What?

She crossed her arms, standing up. "And why would you want to do that?"

His shoulders lifted again. "Starling City is a dangerous place at night. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you on your way home."

"Though I appreciate the gesture, Mr. Queen," she started, making him chuckle when she said his name, "I can take care of myself."

"Oh, I'm sure you can," he agreed. "You have quite a fire inside of you, Felicity. It's very rare for someone to speak out against me when everyone else is on my side. Especially those people."

"So, what? Were you impressed?"

"Not at the moment," he admitted. "Honestly, I was pissed."

"But?" she prompted, knowing something had to change his mind if he were standing in her office right now.

"But... I realized how much courage that must have taken."

"I take my job very seriously."

"And I appreciate that. Not too many employees here do."

There was a long moment of silence where she tried to figure out how sincere he was being and he tried to figure out how much she still hated him. Then she walked around her desk so that there was nothing standing between them. The world seemed to shift, but she pushed away the thought.

"Thanks for the offer, but I can walk myself to my car," she declined, watching as his face fell.

"My intentions weren't anything more than just making sure you got to your car safely, Felicity," he assured.

"I don't care what your intentions were. I still think you're an ass, and like I said before, I can take care of myself."

"If some guy comes out of nowhere and attacks you, you won't be able to just talk your way out of it," he pointed out, losing his smile.

"Talking is not the only thing I'm good at," she said, making that grin return just as fast as it had left. "Okay, that is not what I meant."

"What exactly did you mean?" he questioned, grinning so hard, she wanted to slap it off his face.

"I meant that I took several self-defense classes in college and I still meet with my trainer on a regular basis," she informed him, stating the fact proudly, because yeah, she was proud of herself for it.

His face blanked, and she knew what she had revealed surprised him. His next words surprised her just as much.

"Is it wrong that I find that extremely hot?"

Her jaw dropped, but he didn't give any sign that he'd regretted saying it. She racked her brain for a response, but was drawing up empty.

"Do, uh- you do realize what you just said, right?" she stuttered.

His eyes locked with hers as he took a step forward. "Yes, and I hope you aren't planning on me taking it back."

She cleared her throat, finally gaining back her normalcy. "No. What I'm planning on is you leaving my office and forgetting we ever had this conversation."

He nodded, seeming to finally be accepting defeat. He looked down at the floor as he began to walk away, stopping short to turn and face her one last time. "I can leave your office, Felicity, but I won't forget this conversation."

She didn't know how to respond, so she didn't. All she could do was watch as he left, closing the door behind him. That conversation had been a roller-coaster of emotions. She was pissed, confused, aroused, and pissed again all within a thousand words. Oliver Queen was complicated.

And hot.

Oh Lord, was he hot.

Shaking her head at the woman in her, she walked back around her desk. Sitting down on her chair, she focused back on her work. Well, she tried to focus. Her brain kept going back to Oliver Queen and the way he looked in that three-piece suit. She told herself she wouldn't be human if she didn't find him attractive. That helped her guilty conscience a little.

After giving up on trying to work, she closed out of all her tabs and shut down her computer. She grabbed her bag, double-checking that her tablet was safely inside. The walk down to the parking lot was a lot more worrying with the thought of criminals lurking about. She cursed Oliver for messing with her nerves.

Once she was safely in her car, she locked up her door fast and started the engine. Just as she was about to back out, something in the mirror caught her eye. There was one other car in the parking lot, and in it sat Oliver Queen.

He'd waited for her.

Their eyes locked, and she could see the smirk on his face. She narrowed her eyes at him, driving off and fighting back the urge to give him the finger.

She was having an even bigger challenge fighting off the urge to smile.

A/N: Should I continue?