No Merit of my Own I Claim

Chapter 1 – Boss

By JTrevizo

Rating – R for language and sexual situations

Spoilers: Arrow through Season 3 finale ("My Name is Oliver Queen" – 3x23). Also you probably want to read "My Hope is built on Nothing Less" or else you might be a bit confused.

Disclaimer: Arrow belongs to DC, CW, Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television.

Relationships: Oliver/Felicity.

Summary: Felicity and Oliver find the progress they made with themselves and their relationship might very well be crucial to staying the course when they return home when distractions and problems start to accumulate.

Hi all, well it's finally here – the first chapter to the sequel for 'My Hope is built on Nothing Less". I'm so sorry that it took this long, and I can't say that the update schedule is going to be lightning quick. I used to have a lot more time to write and that seems to have dwindled, so I'm going to do the best I can. Also, fair warning - we're starting off with smut! So let's get to the story…

-x-

No Merit of my Own I Claim

Chapter 1 - Boss

By JTrevizo

Oliver pulled up in front of Felicity's town house by nightfall, the Porsche slipping into a spot between her mini-cooper and the neighbor's black Ford Fiesta. Once Oliver turned off the engine, he spared a glance in her direction before reaching out to rest a hand on her shoulder, prompting her to turn her attention from her home back to the man she loves.

"You okay?" he asked, forehead creasing in concern.

It was a valid question. When Digg had called about the CEO position and Palmer, they'd barely had time to process it before he'd gotten his own confusing call and then they'd been heading home. The drive had been mostly silent as they both internalized the issues awaiting them - Palmer Technologies for her and whatever Barry had waiting for him in Central City. Now that they were facing her house it was all becoming very real, and the last few days of just them felt like they were slipping away.

Felicity gave Oliver a watery grin, her love for him overriding all her other mixed up emotions, "I didn't think we'd be back already."

He sighed and turned towards her as much as he could in the car seat, putting all his focus on her. The time they'd spent together had been more than he could have asked for when he was dreaming of running away from Ra's, finally being with her.

"Does it matter?"

"You wanted to drive away…" she reminded him, a hint of melancholy in her voice. The reality of their return to Starling City had prompted her to fear that under the pressure of everything they were facing their relationship might start to crack at the seams.

"I wanted to be with you," Oliver clarified, his hand lifting from her shoulder to cup her cheek. "For the last year… longer than that, I've just wanted to be with you. And in reality we both knew we were coming come at some point. Nothing's changing between us because we're here and not out there."

She smiled at that, turning her face so she could press a kiss into his palm, forcing a low groan from his chest. When her eyes caught his once more, he felt his lips upturn as he reluctantly released her.

"Let's get inside and settle in for the night. I expect tomorrow will be a busy day."

Felicity let her head fall back at his words, eyes closing with a heavy sigh. She had every hope that Ray was just heads down somewhere, ready to make a surprise appearance when she went to deal with Palmer Technologies, but she had a bad feeling that this CEO thing was going to stick.

"Why oh why did I have to sign that document without looking at it?" she mumbled, causing Oliver to bark out a quick laugh before he climbed out of the car, headed for the storage compartment to retrieve their luggage.

"I think you had other things on your mind, like saving Starling City, and I guess me…"

At his words Felicity couldn't help the smile that broke across her face. She couldn't help it. If she had to do it all again, she wouldn't say she'd want to do it exactly the way they'd done it, she'd rather Oliver had told her and Digg what his plan was, so they could have kept him from doing all the stupid things that had caused the rift between him and Digg and her so many long, painful nights…

"So do I," Oliver spoke up, making Felicity realize she'd been speaking out loud.

With a long suffering sigh she moved to grab up her bag and open her car door, fishing for her keys as Oliver hauled their bags up the pathway. It took her a few tries to locate them but she finally had the door open and they trudged inside. Oliver paused at the entryway as she closed and locked the door behind them, waiting on her instructions on where to put their things. He gave her a look and she bit her lip, pondering.

"Leave everything out here for tonight. I'll throw whatever is washable in the washer tomorrow and send the rest to the dry cleaners."

"I can take care of that if you want."

"You can do laundry?" she questioned, somewhat skeptically as he set down the bags on and around the couch.

"Tatsu wouldn't let me stay with them in Hong Kong unless I pulled my weight. While it wasn't exactly something I wanted to learn, I do know how to sort my colors and how much fabric softener or bleach to use," he replied with a tone bordering on humor, despite the memories attached to his time there.

"Well, I might have to reevaluate that discussion we need to have about moving in together if you have useful household skills," she offered with a smile, her manner teasing as she plugged in her devices and then leaned down to pull off her heels. "Any other useful skills I should take into consideration?"

"I know how you like your coffee. I can cook, because, well, I had to learn while living on an island," he ticked off as he shucked off his jacket, leaving it lying across her couch as he closed the distance between them, "and have been known to bring you screaming to orgasm several times in a row."

Felicity's breath caught as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her hard against his body, his eyes the color of the ocean at night. Her mouth opened to form a silent 'oh' and his own swiftly swooped down to capture her lips. Her hands slid upwards to wrap around his neck, his hair still too short to grip.

He kissed her leisurely but passionately as he let her know just how much he wanted her, wanted this… them, everyday, and would do what he had to so he could have it; when he finally broke the kiss, her eyes slowly opened as a wide grin stretched her lips.

"Sold," she stammered out breathlessly, making Oliver smile at her before kissing her once again, his arms slipping down her back and over her ass, catching her thighs and lifting her up against him as he strode towards the bedroom.

He stopped at the edge of her bed and set her down so he could use his hands for other things. While their tongues dueled Oliver's fingers moved to the front of her blouse and hunted for the buttons he knew were somewhere in there, reluctant to stop kissing her long enough to look for them.

Felicity finally broke the kiss, her hands relocating to press against his chest, giving them half a foot of space between them, prompting Oliver to look at her with a confused expression.

"You, undress. Clothes in the hamper for you to run with the rest of the laundry tomorrow," she announced with a somewhat bossy attitude as she started pulling at her own shirt, popping the buttons from their holes in quick succession.

"Yes ma'am," he responded in a husky voice as he reached down to the hem of his shirt and yanked it off, twisting at the waist to launch the garment at the wicker laundry basket at the doorway to the bathroom, sinking the garment like a basketball three point shot.

Then he watched her pale blue bra join it and all thoughts of laundry and baskets fell from his mind as he attacked his shoes and socks, hurrying to strip. As soon as his pants and boxers sank to the floor beside the bed Felicity had already swept away the covers to the bed and was stretched out across the yellow sheets, gloriously naked, her glasses folded on the nightstand. He didn't hesitate to join her. His arms wrapped around her, sliding between her flesh and the sheets as he kissed her, their lips and tongues pressing and caressing in passionate abandon.

Felicity rolled her hips up against Oliver's his straining erection, forcing a groan from him. He gave her one last heated kiss before he pried his mouth from hers and sucked his way down her neck while his hands slid to her ass. Pressing his knees down hard on the mattress he levered himself backwards, holding her tightly to him and landing her wet center over his cock as he knelt on the bed.

Her hands found their way to his shoulders and she pushed herself upwards enough that he could line himself up with her opening and guided her back down, resulting in dual moans of appreciation as he filled her.

Felicity wrapped her legs around Oliver's waist, pressing herself flush against him. Then he lifted her, his hands holding her hips tightly before he almost roughly pulled her back down onto his hardness as his hips snapped upwards.

A unlady like grunt fell from her lips and Oliver fought off a laugh which ended on a groan when she clenched her internal muscles around his length.

"You're trying to kill me," Oliver growled out, one hand moving from her hip to tangle in her hair.

"And you're showing off your very impressive upper body strength and all. But this position isn't doing much for me… you can't thrust deep…"

Oliver's eyebrows rose as he looked at Felicity, wide eyed. While she was far from being a passive participant in their sexual relationship, this was the first time she'd actually said something like this to him. And he found it kind of sexy.

"So, what would be better?" he questioned, his voice dropping an octave, making Felicity shudder in his arms.

"Well, I could grab hold of the headboard and let you pound into me from behind," she replied in a suggestive whisper against his ear, Oliver's breath catching as his cock jerked within her, "but I really want to watch you fall apart when you come so I think…"

Instead of finishing her statement Felicity unwrapped her legs from his waist and angled them so her knees pressed tightly against his sides, arms going around Oliver's shoulders. Then before he could realize what she was doing she let herself fall backward onto the bed landing almost where they'd started. Oliver's hands barely had time to shoot out to brace himself from crushing her under him, yet with the shift in position, Oliver's shaft drove into her deeper, making her cry out breathily.

"Блядь (fuck)," swore Oliver in Russian with a tortured curse.

"See…" Felicity gasped as Oliver shifted within her, spreading his knees to get better balance as he slipped his arms under her thighs to let her stretch out her legs from where they'd been folded up against his chest, her knees now bent over his shoulders, "better…"

Oliver couldn't disagree with her. It felt amazing being buried so deep within her heated, slick core. He dropped his head to hers, mouths fusing in a fiery kiss as he eased back and then plunged back onto her center with a controlled stroke, which was then followed by a second, then a third. Felicity moaned into the kiss and Oliver echoed it.

Her hands released their grip on his back and shoulders and slid to his hips and then past them to cup his ass. Squeezing briefly, Oliver's hips jerked, his cock slamming into her harder than before.

"Yes," she called out, her lips pulling from his at the action. "Harder, please…"

Her request was like gasoline on a bonfire and Oliver's hips began to piston as he sped up his motions, feeling her walls ripple and clench around his erection while he felt the tingle at the base of his spine, signaling his pending climax.

But he didn't want to come yet. He needed her to come first, at least once.

He leaned back, his arms wrapped around her thighs moving to tilting her hips up further, her back barely supporting her while his pelvis hit her clit on the down stroke. He felt her shudder under him as her core spasmed around him hard and she gasped, "Oliver!"

He continued to slowly thrust in and out of her, riding out her orgasm. When she stopped shaking beneath him, her walls easing around his shaft he nearly pulled all the way out of her before pistoning back in again hard and fast, and she moaned beneath him, her hips thrusting up into him as her body instantly responded to his movements. Oliver groaned low in his chest, knowing that she was close to another climax given the right… motivation and he gritted out, "one more Felicity. Come with me this time."

"Oh, frack, yes…"

He fought the smirk that tried to curve his lips as he watched her writhe beneath him, her blunt, forest green nails cutting into his biceps as she held on while he pounded into her in quick, hard thrusts over and over. Oliver grunted and panted as the speed and intensity increased, his balls tightening and he knew he had a minute or two at most before he succumbed to his own orgasm.

One hand broke from her thigh to insinuate two fingers between them where he was plunging in and out of her. He rubbed circles, hard and fast over her clit until she exploded around him, an unintelligible high pitched cry breaking from her lips as she came hard, her eyes open wide and pinned on him.

"О, Боже, да (oh god, yes), Felicity!" he shouted as he came, his hips jerking gracelessly as he pumped into her for long moments until he listed forward, spent.

He felt her hands brush over his still shorn hair as his breathing slowed. He tipped his head up to meet her eyes and found her smiling widely at him. Sending her an answering grin he eased her legs off his shoulders and arms, gently settling them to either side of his hips on the mattress. Then his hands gravitated to her face, fingers brushing over her cheeks as he carefully laid himself over her, keeping the majority of his weight on his forearms and legs even as he stayed buried inside her.

"That," she murmured breathlessly, her own heart rate elevated from her orgasms, "was… wow."

Oliver chuckled, the vibration rippling through him and into her, making her groan as his softening member shifted within her sensitized core.

"It was," he breathed out in an awed tone, wincing a bit when her walls gave a twitch and he carefully eased out of her before wrapping his arms around her as he shifted to one side to land on the bed, hauling her with him to land half on his chest.

"So, you didn't mind me… telling you what I wanted?" she questioned, a look of curiosity on her face.

Oliver grinned at her. Sometimes he forgot that their sexual relationship was very new, and she'd revealed to him her insecurities about his… playboy past. It was a fair question, and one he was happy to answer.

"Felicity, you should know by now that I've learned taking direction from you is always the best course of action," he replied with a heated look.

She huffed briefly at his obvious double entendre before laughing, her hands pressing against his hard chest before she stretched up to place a short but hard kiss to his lips.

"I'm glad you've figured that out," she stated before adding simply, "I love you Oliver."

"I love you too," he whispered against her ear as she stretched into him, grinning before she let out a quiet yawn.

"Sleep. You've got a long day tomorrow," he said, settling her into his arms where she'd become accustomed to sleeping, her eyes closing while she pressed a soft kiss against his bicep, murmuring something unintelligible.

It was bare minutes before she drifted off to sleep, and Oliver sighed contentedly as he shut his own eyes, letting himself follow her into slumber.

The next morning the alarm came too soon considering they'd been without one for nearly a week. But today there were actually things to do and places they had to be at certain times. Felicity had spent most of the car ride the day before scheduling her meetings for the day – first with the board of directors, then with the other vice presidents regarding their departments. There was no sleeping in today.

"Coffee?" Oliver asked as Felicity buried her head against him while he reached over to turn off her alarm.

"Yes, please and thank you," she answered as she reluctantly climbed out of bed, briefly placing a kiss on Oliver's lips before she hurried to the bathroom to get her day started.

Oliver smiled and threw back the covers, eyes scanning the floor for his boxers and jeans from the day before. Shimming them on, he trudged into the kitchen and started some coffee. While it perked he hunted through the cupboards and refrigerator, coming up nearly empty handed. There were no perishables left, since they'd planned to be gone for a while so there was no milk for her coffee. He'd been lucky to find a few containers of non-dairy creamer she'd left in the cupboard along with pre-packaged sugar from the local Jitters.

Once the coffee was done he was pouring out two cups and started fixing hers for her. The shower had shut off minutes earlier and he could hear her mumbling in the bedroom, a few curses mixed in as she got ready. With her coffee fixed he focused on drinking his own mug of black coffee while he wondered if he had enough time to run to the corner store and pick up some basic groceries for him to make her something for breakfast.

Just as he was about to call out and ask her how much longer she'd be Felicity stepped out of the bedroom. He recognized the silhouette red dress with the off center knot at the neckline she wore. Before he could say anything about the outfit she was nearly lunging for the coffee he held in his hands.

"One," Oliver said with a small grin as he handed the "IT Girls are Smarter" mug to Felicity, and she rolled her eyes at him before taking a long gulp, sighing. "So, red."

Felicity gave him a loaded look as she swallowed another drink of her coffee. "Well, I wanted to wear something that felt professional and powerful and…"

She didn't have to say why wearing red was more than a bold fashion choice. He knew and he appreciated it for everything it meant.

"You know I love it on you. And if you're going to be the new CEO you do need to look the part," he said seriously before leaning into her space and tempting her into kissing him.

"So I have no idea what I'm in for," she said when she finally pulled back, her hand moving up to push her glasses back into place. "I'm a genius, sure, but running a company…"

"You were going to turn me into the corporate master of the universe, yet somehow all that knowledge can't help you be CEO?" Oliver pointed out, and Felicity gave him a glare.

"Is this how this is going to work now? You get to undermine my self-doubt with amazingly insightful comments? Because is so I am not sure I like this reversal of roles thing. I'm the one with the spectacular motivational speeches."

Oliver chuckled and sat his coffee down on the counter before he moved to rest his hand on her shoulder, the move pulling her eyes up to meet his, the action now an obvious sign of his affection for her compared to when he used to do it before and hadn't or couldn't acknowledge its true meaning. "I promise not to do it too often. Besides, I can't imagine ever being as good at it as you are."

"It was pretty good. And you're right… I think I can do this, I mean I understand what Ray did and you did and… I'm just nervous…"

"Did you want me to drive you to Q… I mean Palmer Tech? Just for moral support..." Oliver stumbled, trying to find any way he could to be there for her as she faced this new challenge.

Felicity frowned, tipping her head so her high ponytail swung to the side as his words sunk in with her. She knew it was unintentional but his slip just served to remind her once more that Ray had essentially swooped in and bought Oliver's family's company out from under him, despite her attempts to help, and now she was technically the CEO of what really was his family's company.

"I appreciate the offer, I do, but… I don't think you dropping me off in front of the building is the first image I want to present to the board of directors."

Oliver nodded in understanding. Felicity had enough to deal with after all the rumors of her relationship with him while he'd been CEO on top of her actually having dated Palmer before he'd signed the CEO job over to her. He reached for his coffee once more to give him something to do with his hands as his eyes stared into the half empty cup.

Felicity recognized Oliver's retreating behavior and gulped down the last of her coffee in a few quick swallows before she set her cup aside and stepped closer to him, laying a hand on his forearm, prompting him to look up.

"So, are you going back to the loft this morning?" she asked quietly, her voice filled with longing and love, making Oliver take a deep breath as he shook off his darker thoughts and focused once more on them and this new thing between them.

"After I start the laundry," Oliver stated with a grin that Felicity couldn't help but return. "Then I'll head over there. I want to see Thea, and if it's still okay, I'll pack some more of my things to bring back. Any drawers I shouldn't reorganize as I find a place for my things?"

Felicity shook her head, smiling widely at the thought of him having things in her place. Of it being 'their' place. She narrowed her eyes at him for a second, a thought crossing her mind seconds before it slipped past her lips, "are you sure you want to move here? I mean you have all that huge space at the loft and the view and…"

"And it's technically Thea's. I was just living there because I needed a place to stay. And… it was bought with money from Malcolm's estate, so… no."

"Oh, okay."

"But like I said before, I want this, everything with you. Your space becoming ours," he reminder her as he leaned forward to press a kiss to her forehead, making Felicity grumble a bit.

"I don't get a real kiss?" she complained.

"One, if I kiss you like I want to, you aren't leaving the house today and two, I figured you want to keep that lipstick pristine for when you get to the office," Oliver said hoarsely, his eyes zeroing in on the pale coral lipstick gracing her very kissable mouth.

"Uh, hell and no. I can put more on, and I will be back tonight so any plans you might be formulating about you, me and the horizontal, or vertical for that matter surfaces in this house can wait until then," she announced before she reached up and pulled his head down to hers, kissing him hard and deeply, catching Oliver off guard as he had to find his balance before he wrapped her in his arms and returned the kiss.

When Oliver nipped on her lower lip with his teeth she considered cancelling everything and just rejecting the CEO position when her phone started ringing. Oliver growled softly before he eased away from her and Felicity sighed as she recognized Gerry's ringtone.

She might not have wanted the job, but Ray had signed the position over to her for a reason. And even if it wasn't just her taking care of his company, she felt an obligation to take it for Oliver… even if he didn't quite know it.

"I need to go," she sighed, pulling away from Oliver as she quickly swept up her electronics, dumping them in her bag and snagging her keys.

She got as far as the door before she turned back, finding Oliver right behind her. His bare chest distracted her for a second before she shook it off and found his warm gaze focused on her. With a brief smile he leaned down and placed a light kiss on her lips before stepping back, his hand bracing on the door jam.

"Okay, so… work… and I'll see you tonight…" she stammered out, backing up and out the door.

He nodded, smiling as he said, "love you."

"Love you too," she answered quickly, and then turned and rushed down the path to her mini-cooper, hurriedly opening the door, tossing her things in and getting it started.

Oliver stood at the door, watching her pull away with a smile before he sighed, closing the door behind him as he turned towards the bedroom to start putting things together to run the first load of laundry.

-end ch 1-

So, yeah… reviews/thoughts are always wonderful. I have a pretty big arch of things to deal with back in Starling (or Star by the end of this) City, from Sara, Ray, the legends of tomorrow, Digg, Thea and even Roy! Hopefully you all want to join me for this journey. Thanks for reading!

Ms. J.