Felicity stood at the door watching him. Oliver's eyes were hidden behind his hands but Felicity's eyes drifted to the tension of the muscles in his neck and back. Oliver was keeled over seemingly trying to block out the world. Felicity felt helpless. She knew it was too late. She hadn't said everything she wanted to say. She hadn't told him how she felt.
And now he was promised to another woman.
A woman he didn't want. A woman he didn't know. But he was stubborn. And Oliver would keep this promise to this other woman to keep the promise he made to his sister. To bring Thea back no matter the risk. Felicity stared and stared and Oliver brooded and brooded. He was such a fucking brooder. God she hated it. Yet a part of her maybe loved it.
"Knock, knock."
Oliver lifted his head from his knees as if pulling himself from a deep fog. He searched the room and his eyes found hers.
"Can I," Felicity stuttered, "Can I come in?" She didn't know why she was nervous.
"Yes. Yeah. Of course." Oliver's shoulders tightened more, if that was possible.
She walked in slowly, not sure why she had come or what she planned to say. Nothing she said would change his mind. She knew him too well to think differently. Instead she found herself looking anywhere but his blue eyes. Felicity knew that if his eyes managed to lock on hers she might never be able to tear herself away.
"So. Nice digs. Ra's really knows how to hook an heir up. Do you think everyone gets this royal treatment or just the ones he's tried to kill before?"
Oliver's lip twitched in a slight smile, unable to stop himself when Felicity rambled.
"Or maybe he takes it up an extra notch just for the ones he forces into marriage with one of his daughters?"
Instead of responding he just kept looking at her as she made her way around the room.
"Lot of candles. Do they have something against electricity here? Because this is probably a fire hazard. If someone fell asleep with all these candles lit, and then a blanket or a pillow or a sham or…something caught fire. Well. It wouldn't be…it wouldn't be…"
She stumbled over the end of her rant as a hand touched her wrist while she wasn't looking. Felicity swallowed, her breath caught in her throat, unable to turn and look at Oliver.
"Felicity." He spoke quietly, barely above a whisper. He said her name not so much to get her attention, but as if to say it was to breathe. As if just saying her name gave him the oxygen he craved to survive.
His thumb ran over hers and her hand suddenly gripped his tight. She spun around staring up into his eyes.
"This isn't fair." Her eyes searched his for an answer. Any answer besides the one he was giving her.
"This is the only choice I have," Oliver's hand released Felicity's returning to cover his face in frustration.
Felicity fell into the chair across from him. She looked down, trying not to let him see the tears that she was forcing back into the depths of her eyes. Desperately trying to close the windows into her soul.
"There is no other way," his voice shook with anger.
Felicity looked back up. Searching his broken body for the strength she so admired.
"Oliver." When he didn't look up she touched a hand to his face. He looked at her. "There is always another way."
"Not this time."
"Yes this time!" She bit back at him unwilling to accept this as the truth as she leaped up again. Too many times in the past they reached a dead end only to find a secret route leading their way out. Too many times before they crossed paths with death, only to cheat their way to safety. Why should this be any different?
"I won't let you sit there and sacrifice yourself, your life, to a man who for all we know is over a hundred years old and who bathes in a pool of magic water every night! This is not real. This can't be real." She spun off talking more to herself than to Oliver, her eyes glistening with tears she wouldn't let escape.
"I have to keep you safe. To give you, and Diggle and Thea and Starling City, the chance to live."
It started as a giggle and turned into a full laugh that caught Oliver so off guard, he nearly smiled.
"Oliver, don't you get it?" She sat back down in front of him.
Their eyes met. The blue crashed into the blue, oceans so deep that the bottom remained uncharted, out of reach, impossible to penetrate.
"The life that I want to live for, that makes my life worth living, is yours."
"Felicity…"
"Oliver. I need you. I love you."
A storm surged in the blue depths of their eyes locked on each other.
Oliver reached forward and she thought he was going to rest his hand on her cheek, pitying her, telling her to leave. Instead he pushed Felicity's hair behind her ear and slowly took the glasses of her face.
The breath she didn't realize she had been holding released. The seconds stretched and stretched, a rubber band being pulled endlessly apart, the tension so tight it would surely snap.
Their lips crashed together. They fought for each other's taste, each other's touch, each other's breath. The heat between them scorched and their lips branded one another with the burn of their passion for the other. He bit her lip, she bit back. His tongue fought with hers and she fought back.
Suddenly she was straddling his legs, neither one quite knowing how the other got there. The tension in Oliver's shoulders relaxed as her fingers brushed the skin of his neck just lightly enough to make chills erupt across his arms. Felicity trailed her fingers up into his hair, and he did the same, pushing the blonde strands out of her face and holding her close, desperately needing her to be closer.
They broke apart, gasping for breath. Each of their bodies pulsed, their breath and heartbeats matching in time with the other. Felicity moved closer, lightly pressing her lips to his. He basked in her warmth for just a moment, before pulling away and forcing her eyes to face his.
"Felicity…"
"Oliver. I know I'm a talker. You know I'm a talker. But for once, I really, don't want to talk." When Felicity asked, Oliver always listened. And this was no different.
They stared at each other, a wordless decision passing through the hurricane raging in their eyes. The rough patches of his fingers traced down her arms, down her waist, and ended at the hem of her shirt. He pushed them both up off the chair so they stood facing one another as his arms teased the patch of skin between her black shirt and her black jeans. Felicity slowly undid the buttons of his shirt. Their eyes never left one another.
In a moment between heartbeats Oliver pushed her jacket off as Felicity shoved the black fabric off his arms. He lifted the hem of her shirt over her head and suddenly his skin was on her skin. Oliver's fingers clawed at her back as she slid her arms around his neck grasping and straining for closeness.
Oliver lifted her up with ease and Felicity's legs wrapped around his waist. It felt right. It felt so natural for him to be holding her, for her to be in his arms. It was almost like they had done this for all of eternity. It was like their souls had been desperately trying to reach one another. In every time Felicity had brushed her fingers with his, only to let go too soon, and in every moment Oliver's eyes had lingered on Felicity's just a few seconds longer than they were naturally supposed to, their bodies and hearts were telling them that this was right. And finally, they were nearly there.
Oliver's lips released from Felicity's as he sat them on the edge of the bed. He stared at her, the candlelight reflecting his eyes in hers. His hands drifted without thought, tracing lines from her knee to her thigh and around to her ass. His fingers traced the soft skin at the edge of her jeans and he leaned forward to let his lips burn against the place where her bra met her skin.
Felicity's arms acted of their own accord. They reached behind her and released the clasp of the black bra. She sucked a breath in. Oliver's hand moved up both shoulders pulling the straps down. The black silk fell forgotten to the floor beside them.
His eyes ravished her. They soaked in every curve, every freckle, every small goose bump that rose at his touch. Felicity spread her hands across his chest, feasting on his skin every bit as much as he feasted on hers. Her fingers danced across his scars while his danced across her pure flesh, hesitating on the one bullet wound, Felicity's very own scar, her Team Arrow branding. She lingered on the place where Ra's sword penetrated his body, waves of emotion flooding back at how lost she felt when she thought he had been gone forever. Oliver's thumb traced up and down her thigh, watching her take him in as she continued her journey across the scars of eight years of pain and resurrection. She reached the Bratva tattoo at his shoulder and he lost all the control he had been holding in since he had taken her glasses off her face.
Oliver's mouth found Felicity's and they were all heat and no control. He flipped her on to her back and loomed above her, large, strong, full, and ready. His mouth trailed down her neck to her collarbone to her chest to the line between her breasts and down to her stomach. Her breathing came in heavy pants. Oliver moved back up her body his lips lingering beneath the curve of her breast before taking one hard nipple in his mouth and the other between his fingers. His tongue circled the tight skin and his fingers pinched the hard nub. Felicity gasped and Oliver repeated the movement, spurred by the sound of her breath and the feel of her hands in his hair and on his neck.
He reached below and released the button of her jeans and then his. Rushed and restless he pulled off the final layers of clothing that remained on both her and him. He stood and stared. And she stared back. Her blonde hair was light against the red pillows and her skin glowed in the warmth of the yellow candles. His body heaved with deep breaths making every muscle and every scar stand out as she looked up at him from below.
He moved back towards her, ready and wanting. Oliver's hands took hold of her legs, massaging the muscles as he moved up her body. He kissed her ankle, her calf, her thigh, then placed his lips right below her stomach and above the place where she needed him.
And suddenly his tongue was there. Inside her, around her, and on her. His lips covered her clit and his tongue flicked at the wet folds coaxing gasps and moans from her lips. He smiled against her skin and moved up her body.
She dragged his mouth onto hers, tasting herself on his lips. The kiss slowed. Their lips moved in soft waves against one another. Oliver pulled away and let the blue of his eyes get lost in the depths of Felicity's.
He pushed into her in one perfect thrust. And he stayed, both of them relishing in the completeness of being connected. Their eyes never left one another as he pulled out and pushed back in, once, twice, three times.
His hand found hers and pulled their arms above her head, each of his fingers threading between each of hers.
Because they were lost together they weren't really lost. Time rewound and jumped forward and stopped and started as their fingers trailed across each other's skin and their lips touched and released and found new places to explore all while their bodies moved together. In and out, in and out, building each other higher and higher and higher.
Oliver's eyes and Felicity's met as they reached their infinite height. Their souls relished in the climax of their bodies and their bodies savored in the happiness of their souls.
What may have been minutes or may have been hours later, Oliver pushed Felicity's hair aside and kissed her forehead slowly.
"I love you too." Oliver whispered into her ear.
"I know." She whispered back.
They stared at the ceiling, neither seeing the silent tears finally released from each of their eyes, knowing all too well, that the happiness they just discovered was fleeting, at least for now.
