Oliver whistled while he shaved, grinning at his reflection. Life was good. Hell, life was more than good, it was great. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and the temperature was ideal for the picnic he'd planned for later today with his girlfriend. His beautiful, brilliant, amazing girlfriend… They'd spent hours stealing kisses or just holding each other on the couch, totally oblivious of anything else.
"Someone clearly got some last night…"
"Hal!"
The razor clattered on the sink. Blood pearled with the nick under his jaw. "Fucking Jesus Christ, are you trying to kill me?" Oliver stanched the blood with a ball of cotton before he splashed water on his face to get rid of the rest of the cream. "What are you doing here?"
"Ollie? Who are you talking to? Oh hi, Hal, what are you doing here?"
"That's what I asked," Oliver grumbled.
Chloe leaned against the bedroom doorjamb, her coffee in hand. Annoyance swirled down the drain along with soapy water. Oliver allowed his gaze to travel up her dynamite legs, wondering how he'd managed to walk away the night before. Her dark-blue jeans shirt started almost where her cargo shorts stopped and was buttoned up to her breasts, revealing a tight white camisole. His hands itched to test the fullness of the enticing curves.
Arousal spiked, that he managed to squelch. Now that he was allowed to touch her whenever he wanted, his crave had abated from devouring to somewhat bearable.
His eyes reached her face and Oliver grinned at the hint of pink on her cheeks. She was gorgeous. He'd make a point to tell her every day.
Hal snapped his fingers in front of his nose. "Oi! Lovebirds! I'm here on business!"
Oliver instantly stood to attention. "What's wrong?"
A thumbnail chip flickered into existence. "Someone dropped this at the Isis Foundation yesterday. It's encrypted, so Tess called me."
"She figured it out," Chloe concluded.
Hal scratched the back of his head. "Yeah… Kind of my fault, I guess…"
"It's fine," Oliver said. He turned to Chloe once more. "From Carter, you recon?"
"We'll know soon enough."
She palmed the chip and rose on tiptoe to kiss the corner of his mouth. Oliver grabbed her hips and hauled her fully to him for a proper good morning kiss. He couldn't help but grinned again at the dream-like haze in her eyes when he finally released her. "We'll join you in a few."
Chloe nodded and sashayed out of the room.
Hal smirked.
"I don't want to hear a word." Oliver waggled a finger in warning. "And don't look at her like she'd a piece of ass to grab."
"I'll let you do the grabbing, pal."
"Shut up. I don't yap at you for blowing it up to Tess, don't poke at my love life."
"Just glad you finally have one."
Hal released his hold on his ring's power and his costume shimmered away. "Look, about Tess…"
"It's fine Hal," Oliver repeated. "She's been around for more than a year and she's bright. It's a miracle she didn't catch up sooner. Chloe trusts her, Lois likes her, that's good enough for me. Heck even Mera tolerates her. Just talk to the others before spilling everything about the League, all right?"
Hal nodded. "Thank you. Have you told Blondie you're in love with her yet?"
Oliver paused half-way through buttoning his shirt. "I… It's too soon for that."
"Ollie!"
"Saved by Tinkerbell."
The two men exited Oliver's bedroom to join Chloe in the living room. She lost no time to point at her screen.
"It does come from Carter. There are hundreds of files in here. It's going to take a while to sort out."
"Who's Carter?" Hal asked.
"A potential new recruit for the League." Chloe gawped at Oliver with wide eyes then her beam lit the room. Hal wasn't so far off the mark about the L-word… Oliver shook out of his trance to finish answering the question. "He's on a personal quest for now and we agreed to give him a hand."
"O-kay…" The brunette shrugged. "Well, let us know if there's anything we can do from our end. I should get going. I promised AC to relay him tonight so he could go back to his mermaid early and you two kids look like you want to spend quality some time alone…"
He flipped his hand to make his costume reappear and then made a Cheshire Cat's exit, his customary smirk the last to fade.
"And no scheme of ours can raise any sort of smile…" Chloe quoted.
"Oh, I beg to differ. I'm pretty sure I can make you smile. For example, if I do this…" Oliver dropped a kiss on her neck. Her skin just inside her collar was warm and delicious. Her giggle ended with a slight push on his chest to get his lips away from her.
"Business before pleasure… You're a hard woman, Chloe."
"And you… need to finish dressing." She pointed at his disarrayed clothing.
Four days ago, Oliver would have missed the subtle glimmer of interest in her green eyes. He leaned forward to steal another kiss and she nudged him away more firmly. "Stop trying to distract me. Do you really think Carter would join the League?"
"He used to lead the Justice Society of America. We could use his experience."
His shirt fixed, Oliver leaned over her shoulder to watch her program sort through the digital content. Documents opened and closed so fast it made his head spin. "What's the software doing?"
"Huh… It's creating a database. Watchtower scans each document. Foreign documents are flagged and translated. Usual words such as pronouns, articles, etc., are discarded but the rest is organized into a list of key-words, with links, dates, numbers, etc. I am hoping QI's recognition software can help match some words with forms on the images."
Oliver chuckled. "I am not sure my R&D team created that software with that in mind. If it works, I might ask you to build a brand-new business case for the stuff."
"I…"
Oliver turned his head a fraction when she trailed off. Chloe inhaled sharply when his breath ghosted over her cheek. Her voice dropped an octave as she stammered through her retort. "I… can't help it if you're… good… Your team is, I mean… Good…"
"Good hum?"
Chloe moaned softly.
Payback was so sweet… She was helpless at hiding her arousal, her head craned sideways to offer her neck to him. Oliver skimmed his mouth along the sensitive flesh at his leisure. One of her hands pulled at his arm to secure it around her midsection. When he did, her breathing hitched and shallowed some more. Unable to stop himself, he dipped his fingers under her shirt, brushing along the belt of her shorts. Chloe stilled and he was sure she stopped taking in air entirely. She was so tense Oliver backtracked to splay his palm on her smooth stomach. She relaxed a little.
"Everything's all right, Sidekick?"
She hadn't frozen last night when they made out on the couch. His caresses had been a bit less forward after their first kiss but no less heated.
"I… We need to… I need to tell you about Jimmy."
Amorous thoughts left his body at once. "Okay."
"He… He was my first. And he's the only man I've been with."
Oliver sat on the chair next to her and pulled her on his lap. Chloe leaned her cheek on his shoulder. "It was… It wasn't… good. The first time always hurt, I know but even after… It wasn't pleasant. Not like you make me feel."
His body hardened, not in a pleasurable way. Blood started to pound against his temples. "Did he hurt you?"
If he'd hurt her, the little shit was going to suffer.
"No! No but… I was uncomfortable. I went to a doctor who recommend some… stuff. Lube, that kind of thing. But… I asked him to wait."
"You were going to marry him, Chloe."
His anger turned toward the petite blonde in his arms. How could she accept to shackle herself to someone unable to put her first for the rest of her life, resign herself to misery and pain? Something wet his shirt. Tears. Oliver let go of the thundering annoyance eating at him to rock her. "We don't have to rush into anything you're not ready for… Don't cry, Love…"
Chloe hiccupped. "He cheated on me."
He had to physically restrain himself before he crushed her. He was going to kill the bastard. Then he'd put flowers on his tomb to thank him for messing up so he had a chance. "That's on him not you."
"I know… I know but… He said horrible things. That I was not enough, that I was a liar and the worst mistake he'd never made."
Oliver growled. Forget the flowers. James Olsen was a dead man. Then Oliver was going to find a way to resuscitate him to kill him again. And again. One death for each tear he'd made Chloe cry.
Chloe sniffled and shifted to wrap both arms around his neck. "Clark dropped a cabinet on his favorite camera."
"I'm taking back everything I have ever said about Boy Scout."
"After Lois broke his nose."
"I'm buying your cousin a new car."
His blonde treasure giggled on his lap. Oliver rubbed her back tenderly, careful to avoid her mark.
"We'll take as much time as you need, Chloe. There's no rush."
"Carter said…"
"Carter has no say whatsoever in our sex life. I can protect you from Savage. We'll get there when we'll get there."
Chloe pecked his jaw. "Might be sooner rather than later."
"Only if you want to."
"Oh, I want to, Oliver… I really want to…"
He lifted her chin with his knuckle to stare into her vivid green eyes. "You'll have to tell me if you're uncomfortable, if it hurts or if you don't like something."
She tried to escape his scrutiny but he forbad it. "All right?"
"Yes. All right."
The moment was a bit too solemn for his taste. Oliver winked. "Of course, you'll also have to tell me if you like something. Or you could scream it."
"Oliver!"
She slapped his venturing hands away from her sides and stood.
"The program is going to be a while. I was promised a site visit and a picnic."
"That you were. Come along Watchtower. Your chariot awaits…"
