"OLIVER!"
Oliver turned around at the sound of her loud voice, looking like a deer caught in headlights. "What!"
Felicity shut her eyes and counted to three. She opened them again only to see Oliver's expression change from alarmed to amused. And…is that…chagrin?
Oh, that rat bastard did this on purpose.
"Oliver Jonas Queen!" she yelled. "How am I supposed to ride on that thing? You knew I would be in a dress! You expect me to plant my butt on your seat with my panties being the only thing…separating…" Her words slowed drastically as her brain caught up with her mouth, and her face went hot. She slammed her eyes shut and counted down from three. She counted again. She did it one more time for good measure. She opened her eyes again and took in Oliver's expression, which at the moment looked excruciatingly pained, trapped between a kicked puppy look and an extreme suppression of laughter. He was biting both of his lips tersely, his dimples were showing, his brows were furrowed, and there was a suspicious sheen in his eyes. Thankfully, her anger kicked in again. "And my hair!" She whipped all her hair to one side and waved it at him. "Do you think I spent two hours on my hair tonight just to have it completely ruined and windblown? Are you crazy?"
Oliver fell into a coughing fit that sounded suspiciously close to laughter. He held up one finger as he coughed. When he recovered, he wiped some tears from his eyes and had a wide smile on his face. "I have a solution for that," he said, still slightly choked. He reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a significantly sized sheer black scarf.
"Hmph," she grunted, trying to seem unimpressed, even though she was the exact opposite. "I'll still get helmet head."
He laughed. "I'll help you fluff your hair."
She broke down and smiled. "Okay fine." She loosely gathered her hair in a bun at the base of her neck and reached for the scarf.
Oliver shook his head. He came closer to her, folding the scarf in half diagonally as he approached. He placed the folded edge of the scarf a couple of inches above her hairline, and she felt him bring the ends down around her face. He crossed them under her chin, and then he began to wrap them around, loosely, behind her neck and under her bun.
"You can let go now," he murmured softly, nudging her hand that was still holding her hair. She did. The bun held in place as he brought the ends back around to the front. "Is that too tight?" he asked, his voice still soft.
She shook her head.
He shifted his hands and tied a knot off to the side. "There," he said, placing his hand on her cheek. He looked into her eyes and smiled. "Now you look like Audrey Hepburn."
She stared into his eyes and suddenly she couldn't take a breath. "This is really intense." Gah! She closed her eyes. "I totally just said that out loud."
Oliver laughed out loud. She couldn't get enough of his laugh tonight. She heard it here and there all night long, in the apartment while she was getting ready. She couldn't get over how light his behavior was. She wondered if this was what he was like pre-island, but with a bit more maturity. She felt like she was getting addicted to happy-Oliver, and she wanted more.
"How did you know how to do that?" she asked curiously.
And just like that, happy-Oliver vanished. Oh, he was still smiling, but his expression got sharp around the edges with pain. "My mom…" he choked.
Empathy tears instantly flooded her eyes and fell down her cheeks. This immediately changed his expression from pain to something else. "No," he mourned. "No crying, you'll ruin your makeup." He took one of the edges of the scarf and gently blotted at her tears.
She breathed out an emotional laugh. "Geez, Oliver," she teased, trying to lighten the mood again. "Let's dial back on these intense moments, yeah? Save them for next time?"
Oliver laughed and nodded. "Yeah."
He took her hand in his and walked them over to the bike. "I have a compromise for your first complaint, about sitting on here in a dress." He placed her hand on the back seat. She was surprised to feel that it was soft and slightly furry. She looked up at him inquisitively.
He nodded. "I had it upholstered this morning." He shined his cell phone light above the seat and she noticed the print and gasped. "Black leopard." She narrowed her eyes at him, at which he blurted out, "It's fake!" before she could say anything.
He grabbed something from the back of the bike and handed it to her. It was a helmet, in brown leopard print. She looked at him again.
He smiled at her. "For you."
She smiled and hugged the helmet to her chest for a moment. "Thank you," she said simply.
"You're welcome," he replied. He pointed at the seat. "I know it doesn't completely solve the problem, since your panties will still be the only thing separating your seat from mine…" Here he paused, looking expectantly at her, probably anticipating the raging blush she had going. His smile widened. "But I figured," he continued with a smirk, "this way, it would feel better."
Oh my god, this man is going to kill me, she thought viciously as she felt her ears grow incredibly hot. She slammed her helmet roughly on her head, catching an ear in the process but she was so flustered she couldn't be bothered by something as trifling as pain.
She waited for him to get on the bike before she followed suit. Screw it, she thought rebelliously. I'm going to enjoy this. She nestled herself against Oliver's backside, tucked her dress in between them, and wrapped her arms around his torso. She turned her head to the side and leaned against his back. A thought just occurred to her.
"I thought you were supposed to wear, like, a leather jacket or something, not a suit."
Oliver turned his head back toward her and shrugged. "Well," he started replying, "I figured if Daniel Craig can do it, so can I." With that, he pressed a button and the bike roared to life.
She started back in surprise. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed. "Oliver! Was that a pop culture reference?"
Oliver shrugged again. "You had magazines!" he shouted over the roar of the bike, and with that, they took off.
xoxoxoxo
The ride to the restaurant district took about half an hour, with traffic, providing plenty of time for Felicity to just exist and feel plenty of good feelings riding on the back of Oliver's motorcycle. She liked feeling his muscles moving and flexing under her arms as he maneuvered the bike around the city. She enjoyed the rush of the wind breezing over her legs, causing the skirt of her dress to fly out like a cape behind her. She particularly enjoyed the powerful vibrations underneath her, and coupled with the fact that a few mere millimeters separated her bare skin from his, her mind happily tripped into the gutter and stayed there. She recalled, quite vividly, the moment she saw him in her bathroom doorway. She had been upset at first that he was seeing her in such an unsexy state, and she had been ready to shove him out of her bathroom and shut the door, but then the way he looked, and the way he had been looking at her, silenced all her objections and she froze in shocked arousal.
He must have known how devastatingly sexy he looked leaning against the doorway with his hands in his pockets. She never realized the seductive power of a really great suit, and the black on black he wore was really stunning. The shirt was made with some kind of fabric that subtly reflected light, making it shimmer in the evening lights. The top button was undone, giving a teasing glimpse of the hard muscles underneath. There were pops of bling here and there; the pearly shine of his buttons, the buckle of his belt, the watch peeking out from under his left sleeve.
She had looked up at his face the moment he realized she wasn't wearing a bra, and the darkening look in his eyes reached into her core and stroked her with heat. She knew she would not be able to control her involuntary reaction, and she saw his eyes widen when it inevitably happened. Her mouth had fallen open in a gasp, and as his eyes had continued traveling down her body, hers had fallen lower as well. Her mouth had gone dry when she saw the impressive bulge and, mesmerized, she had completely frozen in place.
Until he had noticed where her attention was and changed his posture. She had to turn away from him at that point to collect herself. Then he had purposefully teased her, with the type of suggestive comment that usually flew out of her mouth by accident, and she became undone. It had taken her a full minute of breathing and thinking unsexy things to recover from that.
She had expected a similar reaction from him when she came out of her room completely dressed up, but he had surprised her again. While seeing her in a completely unglamorous state had turned him on, seeing her looking sexy on purpose seemed to have reached his heart. She had felt flattered when he stumbled a bit upon seeing her. She took in his expression and realized he had looked…transported. He had whispered her name, just once, and hadn't spoken another word, but nevertheless, his eyes told her what he had wanted to say. She had felt it, and then she thanked him for making her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.