CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

              FELICITY HAD TAKEN IT upon herself to excuse herself from her afternoon behind the Garrison's bar, and that was why she now stepped through the threshold of the Shelby residence. Harry had been more than willing to let her have the rest of the afternoon off ― he claimed it was because she had worked so hard in the past year that she'd been there, which was true, but Felicity suspected that the original reason was rooted in his fear of the Shelby brothers. Most specifically Tommy. . . not that Felicity was keen to enforce the fact that he could get anything done in this city simply because of the fear he radiated. Taking advantage of said fear would feel wrong to the angel of a girl, no matter how much easier it made certain jobs or livelihoods.

The deep green curtains separating the two spaces had been flung open and the noise that emerged from the betting shop hit her almost immediately. Raucous yells filled the air as men called across the room to one another, yet the shop was not quite as crowded as it had once been, perhaps earlier in the year. Tommy had taken to narrowing down those counting the bets and money so that the chaos could now be seen as vaguely organised. . . although the mess of papers that sat on his desk now, of which Felicity could spot through the glass separating his office and the main area, said otherwise.

She pulled her mess of waves onto one side and barely attempted to flatten them down as she side―stepped through the jostling men, down towards the end of the room, where she had seen Tommy to be conversing with one of the others in a low voice. His eyes flicked up momentarily and it was in this quick second that he caught sight of the the blonde before him.

Tommy quickly dismissed the man beside him as his interest had instantly been skewed and landed upon the girl. He crossed the room to her and despite himself, despite the work persona of complete and utter seriousness that he kept up each day, a smile had found its way upon his features and he had no intention of ordering its dispersal.

Before he could utter a word, Felicity had risen up onto her tiptoes and greeted him with a soft kiss, halting all syllables

"Good afternoon," he chuckled against her lips. "Have I missed something? Why are you here?"

Felicity shook her head as she stepped backwards, smiling all the while. "Harry let me have the afternoon off," she explained with a grin. "Or rather, I told him I was taking the afternoon off and didn't give him any chance to stop me."

He laughed. "My, you're becoming more of a Shelby by the day!" Tommy exclaimed, and it wasn't hard to see the love that ran clear throughout his blue eyes.

"That's what happens when you're to be married to one," Felicity said with a shrug.

"Hey, I wasn't complaining."

Felicity beamed. "How long until you're finished for the day?

She did not miss the barely―audible sigh that left his mouth at her words, no matter how hard he tried to distract her from it by taking her hand and leading her out of the bustling centre of the room. Tommy kept the door to his office open by just over an inch or so before crossing the room to his drinks' cabinet and picking up a glass.

"D'you want a drink?" He asked as he poured himself one, the whiskey sparkling inside of its crystal encirclement.

Felicity nodded. "Please."

She then went ahead and sat atop the desk, gently nudging the papers to one side so that she might have a seat upon the oaken surface. Numbers and scrawled writing jumbled her vision on the majority of the parchments, whereas neat calligraphy was inked upon another on the other side of her, countering the others that were filled with bookies' digits and records.

Tommy crossed the room, back towards her, before she could wonder anymore about it, and so she shook her head and cleared her thoughts as she took the glass from his outstretched hand.

"I have to work on a couple of things for an hour or so, and then we can leave," Tommy told her apologetically, sitting down in the chair beside her and moving to pull the disarray of papers towards him as he did so. "Is that okay?"

She nodded. "Just don't let me distract you, alright?"

Felicity almost made a move to push herself down from the desk but his hand came to stop her, gently resting upon her knee so to tell her that her departure wouldn't be necessary.

"Stay?" he suggested. "I'll be calmer if you do."

So she did. . . because much like he needed her, she needed him.

✧

It was nearly two hours later when Tommy finally finished with all that he had to do, and in that time, Felicity had distracted herself by trying in vain to read the document with the calligraphy and hard―to―read handwriting upside down. Except that was just what it was. . . in vain. She had only managed to figure out the signature that signed the paper, as well as a couple of words that had not been joined up quite so confusingly as the others had been.

J.S Roberts.

That particular name resonated inside of her as though it was a dull bell ― one that she knew should be alarming her of something or the other, but was not quite managing to do so. Felicity reckoned that he had to be working in some sort of arrangement with her father, because he appeared to be Tommy's closest rival as of now, what with Billy Kimber being ridded of just a few months ago. Try as she might, though, she couldn't for the life of her remember just who J.S Roberts was, so naturally, she gave up trying to guess.

"Get out and go back to your wives, the lot of you!" Tommy called to the other remaining men as he led Felicity out of the office, who quickly obeyed and gathered their bags and belongings, leaving with low chatter and the occasional cheeky grin in the blonde's direction. Tommy took no notice of any of these glances, for he knew that the woman beside him was only ever interested in him, in his hands that teased and his lips that ran along her body as though they owned every inch of it.

He thanked the stars that his brothers had taken to the Garrison earlier that evening, and whilst he hadn't a clue where Polly was, he didn't care. Not now, when he had Felicity beside him. Polly often went away from the Shelby residence with barely a word uttered to her middle nephew, and Tommy knew as well as anyone that she could take care of herself better than the rest of them could. Arthur might get himself cut up by the wily Inspector Campbell and John might return home with a gash upon his forehead from time to time, but Polly was never seen with even a splash of her own blood upon her. The woman was cleverer than Tommy, even cleverer the devil himself.

Besides, it had been days since Tommy and Felicity had been intimate with one another, and the passion that ran through his veins at the thought of fucking his girl overran any other thought in his mind right now.

So he led her up the stairs and she followed without complaint.

"Tommy," she gasped as they stumbled backwards, just barely inside of his bedroom, their frames intertwined with one another as hers pressed up against the closed door. Their lips crashed against one another in a hot, open―mouthed kiss and the woman gasped as familiar elation and passion flooded her veins.

His hands quickly came to find themselves on her thigh and hiked up the hem of her dress so that it rose up past her hips, and his fingers toyed with the edges of her undergarments as he teased her. Knowing all that would turn the blonde on and get her pleading for more, Tommy took to gently trailing kisses from the top of her head and down her supple skin. Across her breasts, soft across her chest, her stomach, her hips. Soft, gentle, awaiting Felicity's pleads to emerge from between her parted lips as she struggled to withhold a moan.

"Tommy―" she whined again, her voice cracking ever so slightly.

"Yes, love?" Tommy hummed, but the heavy breath gave away the steady act of nonchalance that he was close to giving up completely.

The gasp that left her lips restrained any further words, as did his hands, which had quit their teasing and had instead taken to taking the silk of her dress in between themselves. With ease, he lifted the garment up and above her head, and Felicity aided him willingly, not taking a single notice as he discarded it on the floor beside them. Tommy took her hips in his, his touch rough against her soft skin as his lust and desire took the reigns and any previous thought of being gentle fell from his mind. His urges took control yet he pushed them down ― with some difficulty, in all honesty ― as his previous words ran through his mind in a speed so fast that he barely had time to register them at all.

"You were a ridiculous tease at work today, darling," Tommy mumbled as he broke away from her, his eyes raking her body before him with the faintest of smiles appearing on his lips. "Came in looking like a million bloody dollars, and I swear, it took everything in me to not fuck you there and then."

Felicity's giggles bubbled upon her lips at this, but even this sweet, soft sound countered all that was erupting inside of her. It was as though her nerves stood on end, desperation running through her as she tried in vain to stop herself from begging him for more, begging him to stop with the teasing and to go ahead with his words ― to fuck her, there and fucking then.

✧

The morning came far sooner than either of them wanted it to. Tangled in one another's embrace, their limbs intertwined and their hearts beating as one, both Felicity and Tommy lay amongst the sheets as the sun threatened to show itself above the horizon any moment now. Tommy, however, had decided that for once, he was going to enjoy this moment with his beloved curled up in his arms, and so had settled back into a state of half slumber, half consciousness.

Felicity was not so lucky to have sleep overcome her as easily as it had him, so she lay awake from the moment she awoke and thus tried to listen to the steady thump, thump, thump of his heartbeat in an attempt to calm herself back to sleep. Much to her annoyance, it didn't work.

After what felt like an eternity, she slid out from Tommy's arms and slipped out of the sheets, rising so that she might change for work. She dressed quickly and quietly, not wanting to awake the man who still slumbered.

"Lis?" Tommy groaned as his eyes cracked open and were met with the beams of early morning sunlight that were so well―known for paining those whose eyes had just met them. His voice was husky from just waking up and, no matter how many mornings she had woke up beside him, Felicity knew that she would never get tired of such a sound.

"I have a few errands to run, Tom," Felicity whispered as she buttoned her blouse and tucked it into her skirt. "I'll be back in half an hour ― are you still going to be here?"

He nodded, his head bouncing against the pillow. "Figured I'd have a later start today," he answered tiredly.

"Now, there's a sentence I'd never thought I'd hear you say," Felicity remarked with a soft smile.

"I'm sure there are plenty that fall under that category, love," Tommy said, opening his eyes once more to meet her hazel ones. "Now, you weren't about to leave without a kiss goodbye, were you?"

Felicity rolled her eyes but laughed. "'Course not."

Her lips still tingled with that of true love as she exited the house and stepped out onto Watery Lane, barely five minutes later. No other Shelby appeared to be awake now, which surprised Felicity. The streets were just as barren as she walked them, and this came as just as much of a surprise to her.

"Felicity Woods?" A man called to her from where he was leaning up against a shiny, navy―blue car, and he straightened when she passed him, casting her a long look and raking his eyes across her body ― from her blonde tresses to her ruby―red skirt.

"Who's asking?" Felicity returned calmly, only just giving him a quick glance as she did so, to see whether or not she could recognise him.

"Doesn't matter," he responded just as quickly, and within a second, his hand was upon her waist, another on her wrist, and he had her beside him quicker than she could have ever anticipated he might.

"Why not?"

He didn't release her wrist, no matter how much she tried to pry his fingers up and off of it. "All you need to know is that you're to get in the car ― and if you dare to ask another question, I won't hesitate to blow your fuckin' brains out, whether it goes against my orders or not."

Had his words not resonated inside of her along with the sight of the jet―black pistol jutting out of his pockets, she may have asked him just what orders he was on about.

But she didn't. She couldn't. Not if she wanted to live another day, to see Tommy once again.

So she obliged without a word, and back on Six Watery Lane, her beloved was none the wiser of just what was happening to the blonde angel of Small Heath.

AUTHOR'S NOTE!

i think i nearly cried when i started writing this because i've never written smut before (i've always been way too scared to) so. . . ugh i can't believe i just admitted this. anyways please be nice because it took me all week and a whole spotify playlist to motivate myself. . . sweat by zayn is a literal lifesaver. i've never listened to a song on repeat more pls </3

i love you all so much btw!

( i also considered giving felicity a piss kink just so i could fuck with you all but i decided against it so y'all had BETTER be grateful )