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Choices and Change
"Where are we going?"
Oliver sighed, turning off the main road - which was little more than a two lane dirt track - and onto the even smaller dirt track that wound up into the mountains. "That's the fifth time you've asked me that. What makes you think this will be the time I tell you?"
"I am counting on you a) getting distracted and blurting out the answer before you even know you're doing it or b) telling me just to shut me up."
He threw a sideways glance at her. She was slouched in the passenger seat, her bare feet with their mother of pearl toenails propped up on the dashboard. Her pretty pink sundress was pooled around her hips revealing long tanned legs.
"There are about five other ways I could shut you up before resorting to telling you, Felicity," he pointed out.
"Oh, really?" She was striving for disinterest and failing. "Do tell."
"Well, for one I could gag you..."
"With what?" she interrupted, looking around the cab of the truck.
"...with your panties," he finished without pausing, throwing her a challenging look.
"You're assuming they are big enough to serve as a gag," she countered without missing a beat. "I should be offended."
"They only need to be big enough to wad up into a ball and stuff in your mouth."
She paused. "Oh."
That shut her up, he thought fondly, darting another look at her. A pink flush had bloomed on her cheeks and her plush lips were parted. The tip of her tongue darted briefly out between them. Another arrow for his things-that-might-turn-Flicity-on quiver.
"What about getting distracted?" she asked, clearly moving on to a safer subject.
He turned to her again, finding her looking at him. The high ponytail, the smattering of freckles on her nose and cheeks made her make-up free face look very young. "Do I strike you as someone who is easily distracted?" he asked her, looking back at the road.
"That depends," she said saucily. Moments later, he felt her hot little hand on his thigh, sliding between his legs, her pinky finger grazing his dick.
"Felicity." He tensed.
She affected an innocent tone. "Oliver."
"Are you sure it's wise to distract me on this particular stretch of road?" He jerked his chin toward the passenger window. "Look out."
She removed her hand, pressed her nose to the window and then yelped, sliding across the seat and pressing into Oliver's side hanging on to his arm. "That's, uh...we're very close to the edge. In fact, this whole road is very narrow. What if a car comes the other way?"
"I know for a fact that won't happen. And anyway, the road gets larger in fairly regular intervals, for just such an eventuality. At worst we would have to reverse for twenty feet or so."
Looking up the hill, Oliver could already see the house that they were heading for, but only because he knew it was there.
Unlike the majority of houses on the island, this one wasn't painted a blinding white. Instead, it was a light tan, blending in with the surrounding scenery, which constituted mostly of sand colored rocks and sparse vegetation. Hanging baskets and clusters of terra-cotta pots of different sizes filled with flowers provided the only splashes of color. The sprawling home covered the top of the highest point on the island. Numerous terraces hung over steep drops, and the views were out of this world, especially from the roof.
Felicity would love it.
He rounded the last corner and drove between a couple of very large boulders, into the open space at the front of the house. Pulling over to the side, he turned off the engine and got out of the car.
Felicity opened her door, dropped her sandals on the ground and slid down from the passenger seat. "Uh...Oliver?" She slipped her feet into them. "What are we doing here?"
He lifted a hamper with a folded quilt on top out of the back of the truck. "I wanted to escape the heat for a bit. It's s lot cooler and breezier up here. We're going to relax, swim a little, have lunch and whatever else we might feel like having." He winked at her. "Follow me."
"Won't the people who live here have a problem with that?" she asked, trotting along behind him.
He led her around the side of the house."The place is empty."
"That doesn't make it ok to trespass...holy shit!"
He turned to find her gaping at the view, just as he had expected. "Pretty amazing, right?" He watched the rapt expression on her face closely.
"I'm not sure that 'amazing' even adequately covers it," she said reverently. "You can see the town from here. And is that the taverna? Oh my god, it is! Oh Oliver, I bet you could see the whole island from the roof! Is the roof like mine?"
She stopped dead. "Is that an infinity pool? I love that is is the same color as the flagstones. It looks so much more natural than aqua, don't you think?"
While Felicity was babbling, Oliver unfolded the quilt and spread it out on the stones, setting the hamper on it. He kicked off his shoes and was taking off his t-shirt when she turned around.
"Oliver? This is gorgeous and all, buy I am not completely comfortable hanging out at someone else's house. Are the owners ok with this?" She was looking around nervously, as if she expected someone to show up suddenly.
"Felicity. There is only one owner," he reassured her, sitting down cross legged on the quilt. "and he is absolutely fine with it."
She wouldn't let it go. "How do you know? Did you talk to him?"
"You could say that," Oliver uncorked a bottle of red.
"What do you mean, 'you could say that'?" She crossed her arms and looked at him sternly. "You either did, or you didn't. Which is it?"
"Fe-li-ci-ty." He put the bottle on the stones and stood, walking over to her and taking her hands. "I'm the owner."
"You...What?" Her jaw dropped and she stared at him incredulously.
"Which part of 'I'm the owner' are you having trouble understanding? Ow!" He winced exaggeratedly and rubbed the spot on his arm where she had punched him.
"You bought it?" She looked uncertain all of a sudden. "Are you moving out?"
He gave her an exasperated look. "For someone so smart, you sure can be clueless sometimes. I bought this for us. I'm hoping you'll agree to live here. With me. But if you prefer to keep living at the taverna, that's where we'll stay. We can come up here when we want to get away, when we want a swim, and I can come up here when I want to work out. That's one of the reasons I bought it; there's a room that was designed to be a gym. There's also a lap pool around the other side."
Running, even combined with whatever elements of parkour he could work in on a landscape of olive groves, fields, hills and rocks, was not enough for Oliver. He might not be an active vigilante anymore, but he wasn't fool enough to think his past would never catch up with him. He wanted - needed to be in top form, in case it did, in case his former team ever needed his help.
In case Felicity ever needed protecting.
"My point is, it's your choice," he continued. "I live where you live."
She bit her lower lip. "What about the taverna?"
"What about it? It's yours." He smiled. "You're allowed to own more than one house, you know," he teased her gently. "We can spend the night there after one of the taverna's wild parties so we don't have to drive home, or you can use it as a bolt hole when I get on your nerves and you need to get away from me - as long as you understand that you have 48 hours away from me before I come looking for you. We have billions. We can afford a couple of houses."
"No, Oliver, you have billions," she remarked, looking out over the incredible view again.
He felt a sudden surge of anger. "Hey," he said sharply, reaching for her chin and turning her face back to him, forcing her to look at him. She did, wide-eyed and startled. "We have billions. What's mine is yours, and don't you ever forget it."
She just stared at him.
"Felicity, you're starting to freak me out. Say something."
"Ok."
"Ok, what?"
"Ok, Sir," she deadpanned, the corners of her mouth twitching with barely repressed mirth.
"Cute. And I like it. But that's not what I meant."
"Ok, we can live here together."
"Really?" He grinned, feeling giddy as a kid on Christmas morning.
"Really." She broke into the brightest, sunniest smile he had ever seen on her. "Oh my god, Oliver, I can't believe it!" She jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his hips and kissed him soundly. His hands automatically went under her dress and palmed her cotton covered ass. "This place is too good to be true!" She kissed him again, then unwrapped her legs and slid slowly down the front of him, making him bite back a groan. "Show me around. That wine should really breathe before we drink it."
"Ok, but first, we need to get a few more things out of the truck," He towed her along behind him, taking a couple of pillows out of the back and handing them to her. Reaching in again, he pulled out a very large sunshade which he propped on his shoulder, and wrought iron base.
"We're going to need shade for the food and wine, and for us later on," he said, leading the way back to the terrace to set it up.
"It's a dream come true," Felicity sighed as she walked the perimeter of the roof. "This is practically a whole other living space. And a hot tub on the roof?" she moaned, and he wished it were full of water so they could get in right now. Then again, they would be skinny dipping in the pool as soon as he was done showing her around their new home. He watched her pad past the fire pit to the enormous gas grill, running her fingers over the brushed steel.
"Wouldn't it be great to put a bed up here? We could watch the stars. They should be pretty amazing, so far away from the town lights." She laced her fingers together and pressed her joined hands to her lips a she stared across the ocean to the faint purple smudge of the mainland on the horizon.
He watched her profile as she stared into the distance, an expression of serene contentment on her face, wisps of baby-soft hair brushing against her cheeks in an unseen breeze. It made him ridiculously happy. He couldn't wait for them to move in. He didn't care where he lived, not really, as long as he was with her; but starting out together in a home that was new to both of them added a whole other dimension to his happiness.
"Felicity." He held out his hand. "Let me show you the rest of the house. I'd like to take a dip before we eat."
She reached for his hand, tangling her fingers with his. "I didn't bring a bathing suit," she said, and her adorable cluelessness charmed him.
"Felicity." He dipped his head and leveled a look at her. "We don't need bathing suits."
"Oh." She flushed. "Right."
He showed her the rest of the house as she babbled enthusiastically, making plans, suggesting paint colors and placement of furniture.
There were four bedrooms which meant plenty of room for guests, top of the line appliances in the kitchen, and to Felicity's very visible excitement, a sunken tub large enough for two in the master bath, in addition to the enormous shower set behind a dividing wall that did not reach the ceiling. In addition to the gym, there was a windowless den, and an airy library complete with built in bookcases.
"Dibs on this room." Felicity bent down to peer in one of the cabinets below the shelves. "Plenty of storage for spare parts and reference materials." She babbled happily. "It's north facing, so it'll be cooler. My computers will be happy. And so will I, if I get to work facing this view..."
"Come, on there's one more thing I have to show you." Oliver's hand went to the small of her back as he guided he out of the room. He'd been saving one of the the guest rooms for last, because of what was in it.
"I hope you'll be happy about this." He pushed the door open, keeping a close watch on her expression.
It took her a few seconds before she realized what she was looking at. Then her mouth parted over a silent 'oh' and her eyes welled up. For a split second he thought he'd made a mistake, but then she was turning toward him and leaping into his arms.
"You sent for my stuff!" she cried. "But how did you find...wait, ARGUS, right?"
He nodded. "They are really thorough when they're looking for someone."
"With my stuff and what the previous owners left behind, we should be able to get this place livable fairly quickly. After that, we'll have a better idea of what else we need." She hugged him tightly. "Oh, Oliver, that was so sweet of you. How did I ever get so lucky?"
His throat tightened painfully, and he was temporarily robbed of speech. He was the lucky one. He'd almost lost her, and would spend the rest of his life doing what he could to make her happy.
"Tell me," she asked when they were back on the west terrace by the pool. "When did you do all this?"
He reached for her hips and reeled her in. "Well, I wasn't always out fishing with Vageli, or helping Costas with his construction work. Occasionally I'd play hooky instead."
He started pulling up her dress and she lifted her arms, allowing him to strip it off her. She was braless, as she so often was these days, and he reached for one of her breasts, cupping it and brushing his thumb over her nipple, watching her shudder in response. Then he slipped his hands down the back of her panties, kneading her ass briefly before dropping to a crouch and pulling them down her legs.
"So they were in on it?" she asked, putting her hand on his shoulder for balance, lifting each leg for him as he removed them. "That explains the way Costas has been looking at me. He must have been dying to talk. He's such a gossip, I'm surprised he was able to keep his mouth shut."
"I may have threatened him a little," Oliver said, standing up again.
"You didn't...you didn't go all hood on him, did you?" she said worriedly, reaching for the waistband of his jeans.
"No." He let her unbutton them. "He drinks when we are out on the boat. I told him that if he said a word to anyone, I'd tell his wife."
He watched as she sank to her knees, laughing, and stripped his jeans and underwear off him, trying not to think about what she could be doing to him from down there. Instead, he held out his hand and helped her to her feet, leading her to the pool and down the steps into the cool water.
It wasn't a big pool, certainly not enough to really swim in. It was more for floating around and cooling off. Taking Felicity from behind at the end of the pool where the water slipped silently over the edge, with nothing but a steep slope beneath them and half the island, along with the vast expanse of blue-green ocean spread out before them as far a the eyes could see, was just an added bonus. Making her cry out her pleasure into that vast open space was the icing on the cake and the cherry on top.
They were lying in the shade, on the quilts and a pile of pillows, their clothes and the remnants of lunch pushed off to the side. Oliver was on his back, dead to the world, his chest rising and falling gently under Felicity's cheek, an arm curled protectively around her.
Floating on a cloud of contentment, she listened to the silence around her, broken only by the hum of insects and the soughing of the wind. Beneath the other ear, the strong, steady beat of her love's heart lulled her body, if not her mind. Thought she was sated - in more ways than one - and drowsy, she couldn't seem to join Oliver in sleep. Her mind was spinning, too full of the happenings of the day.
So much had changed in the past few months. She'd gone from being a soul in exile, making a new life for herself alone, to being committed to a relationship she had never expected, and about to make a home with the man she loved above all else.
A brief flash of apprehension had frozen her when Oliver had presented her with the house and told her he'd hoped to live with her in it. In a very sobering way, it made the relationship real. Oliver would no longer be living with her in the space she had created, they would be living in a home they had created together. It had been a sobering realization, but also a sign of Oliver's commitment to her. To them.
Despite her apparent hesitation, it hadn't occurred to her to say no. Not for a second. She may be a bundle of nerves at the prospect of taking this next, huge, step, but she knew how to embrace change. She'd been rolling with the punches - metaphorically speaking - since she'd been seven years old.
There had been no choice to make, she thought as sleep finally claimed her.
Note: Next up, there's trouble in paradise, because even happy couples have problems. And because Felicity is damaged in her own way.