CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.

               TOMMY SHELBY COULD BE awfully secretive when he wanted to be — he'd been away for a week or so, dealing with business in Coventry once again, and in the times where he was not away, he had hardly uttered a word to his wife about anything remotely business related; not that she was complaining on the matter, as the few moments they had together without another Shelby family member presents they had spent it intimately with no longing to take their hands off from one another at all. Neither could bear being apart from the other for too long but both knew that it was inevitable, as Tommy was a stupidly busy man who just could not seem to stop himself from dragging him and the rest of his clan into new messes time and time again. Messes that he would rather not tell them about, in all honesty, not even Felicity, so that was what she had assumed to be going on as of now. . . some reckless plan he was mulling over and refusing to tell her for fear of her getting overly panicked about the entire situation.

And along with that, with all of his desires to keep Felicity out of every problem that he was actually able to hide from her, he'd been planning to surprise her for a little while now. . . and yet Tommy found that he was not the best at keeping things from the woman, not after everything they had fought through. So he employed the help of his aunt, as he felt she'd be the one that would be the most helpful of all of his family, and simply hoped that she was just more keen for the end result as he was rather than more loyal to the girl and her pestering questions.

"We hardly ever go out any more these days," Tommy noted to her one day as the pair were alone in the Garrison: for once without any relatives surrounding them with noise.

"No?" Felicity replied lazily, hardly paying attention as she swirled her finger around and around in curly patterns on the table before her. She had her legs swung over his as she did so and they'd stayed like that for a little while, simply enjoying one another's company alongside the rarity of peace that they hardly ever found themselves to have aa well.

"No," he clarified. "And i feel awful about it. I promise you the world and then spend half my time on it fixing its problems."

"That isn't your fault."

Tommy frowned, and shook his head. "It isn't," he agreed. "But I'll still do something about it as though it were, okay?"

She glanced up to meet his gaze. "Like what?"

"You'll find out soon enough, darling."

For such a man riddled with violent, blood and mud, Felicity found that Tommy could be awfully romantic. . . as well as awfully secretive when it came to said romance.

"Can't you tell me one thing?" She questioned, swinging her legs off him.

Tommy laughed, and shook his head. "I can't," he affirmed regretfully. "But I can take you out to see just what I have in mind of making it up to you, if that'll help?"

"Only barely," Felicity grumbled.

⎯

              Once again, Felicity found herself beside Tommy in a car as he drove up the winding country roads, out of all the smoke and shit that Birmingham was. And once again, she found him stopping at the top, cutting the engine and stepping out. . . except this time, he would not allow her to follow her, not immediately.

"Don't look," he ordered, taking her hand as he led her from the car, his palms engulfing hers easily with all of the protection that she craved from him there, in his very embrace.

Felicity stuck out her tongue childishly. "And what if I do?"

That led to him sighing before releasing her hand and having the atop her eyes, clouding her vision suddenly and leading to her whining from annoyance.

"You're no fun," she immediately took to accusing.

Tommy laughed. "Maybe, maybe not."

Felicity rolled her eyes at both this and at his refusal to let her spoil his surprise — the surprise that he had apparently so carefully thought out and seemed genuinely excited for, which led to her desperation to know to grow even more. "What're you hiding?"

"You'll see, love," he assured her, readjusting his hands so that one palm lay across her eyelids and the other clasped her hand, leading her away from the car.

Every sense heightened, with anyone else she would feel overwhelmingly vulnerable with this sort of lack of control right now. Except Tommy wasn't anyone else — he was a cutthroat, murdering gangster, they said, but he was the only gangster that she would want to spend the rest of her days alongside. That wasn't the thoughts going around her brain as of now, though: she was still intent of figuring out just what he was keeping from her outside of the shield of his fingers, hence why she pried at them and whinged when he chuckled at her insistence and tutted, clicking his tongue.

"My, you're impatient!"

"Only because you're a very infuriating man, Thomas Shelby," was all she grumbled in return.

"So you've said, Felicity Shelby," he turned it back on her, and his words ignited all of her sweet love for the man once again, as she figured that she would never, ever tire of hearing her name alongside his. With a gentle touch, Tommy halted her and removed his hand, instead wrapping the girl up in his embrace as he watched her take in the sight in front her. "There. Look."

Unsure of what to say, Felicity turned to him after a minute. "What am I looking at?"

Exhaling sharply with amused annoyance, he used the tip of his thumb to tilt her head back to the front and down, so that her gaze found itself trailing down the hillside until it caught a glimpse of a towering mansion that stood against the fields sharply; Felicity found herself wondering just how she hadn't seen it before, as it stood out against its grassy backdrop like a sore thumb, but a handsome one at that.

"Tommy?" She exclaimed softly, careful not to sound to excitable in case it wasn't all that she thought it was. "Is that. . ."

"It is," he affirmed, and even as she wasn't facing him, she could hear his smile as he watched the girl before him.

Her own happy little grin took over her features as she turned to face him, biting her lip to stop the beam from growing too wide, although her eyes betrayed her. "I can't believe you actually went through with it, in all fairness," Felicity marvelled quietly.

"I needed to get us away from the city," Tommy answered simply.

"Why?"

"Partly because I said I'd do it. . . and when haven't I ever gone through with my word, eh?"

Felicity frowned. "Lots of times, I reckon."

"Name one," he challenged.

"Well. . ."

Before she could finish, though, she found her lips being sealed with a kiss as Tommy took her face in his hands with his thumb on her cheekbone, being oh so gentle as he did so. She let out the tiniest of gasps as she eased into it, and then released a whine of frustration as he broke away, intertwining his fingers with hers as he ignored her vexation.

"I've got an hour or so before I'm needed back at the office," he told her, taking a keychain from his pocket and dangling it from his index finger. "Meaning we have time to go and inspect the place."

"Inspect?" Felicity laughed. "It's a house, not a horse you just bought at an auction."

"If it were a horse, I'd have Curly check it over before anyone else came near it," Tommy responded. "As it happens, though, I bought it and Polly was the one that confirmed it'd be perfect for you. And as much as I trust her judgement, I want to hear from you that it's good, or else it'll go."

"Go?" She exclaimed. "That'll be a waste of money, Jesus!"

"And that's why I asked Polly rather than Ada," her husband retorted.

She rolled her eyes. "Ada's got more sense than you give her credit for," Felicity told him as they walked back over the car. As they reached it, she turned back to him, reached up onto her tiptoes and kissed him once more before he could object to her statement. "In fact, all the Shelby women have more sense than any of you men give them credit for."

"Is that so?"

Felicity frowned as she realised the man was far more interested in the woman in front of him than in what she was saying; Tommy noticed this but took no attention, instead focusing on the steady beat of her her heart that pulsed through his fingertips as he held her at the waist, their torsos touching.

"Yes, that's so," she said, all matter-of-factly, trying to ignore the fact that the man had his gaze locked on her lips with the smallest, most amused of smiles.

"Then I'll have to work on that, won't I?" Tommy said as he began to pepper kisses upon her, starting from the softest one on her nose and working his way down; he sucked on her neck, gently but just enough to leave a mark.

"Tom, we have. . ." Felicity began but trailed off, just as desperate for him as he was for her.

"Business can wait."

"No, I know. . ." She continued, trying to force herself out of the haze he had her in as he kissed further down, getting dangerously close to the neckline of her dress. "The house, Tommy. You said we'd see the house."

Her words brought him back to his proper senses and he sighed, straightening but wishing that they could have gone further. The pair had had to have their hands off one another for over a week now and he wanted nothing more than to undress her, to fulfil all that he had been craving whilst he was away and was not able to satisfy with his own touch. Yet Tommy knew that she was right and he knew that they'd fuck later on — she was just as desperate for his touch as he was for hers —, and that was why he nodded, moved her away from the car door before opening it with as much of a gentlemanly air as he could muster. Felicity climbed in and he shut it after it before going around and getting in himself.

"If you don't like it, I'll go for Polly's head meself," he grumbled, still slightly — sexually — frustrated.

"I'll love it, Tommy," Felicity reassured him with her light laughter that was so very familiar, but all the same musical, to his ears.

How perfect everything finally was.

AUTHOR'S NOTE!

my loves my loves my loves! they're so cute i might actually cry, i hate that a fictional fanon couple makes me feel things. gross. yucky. cancel emotions rn

( sorry for not updating in weeks! i've had schoolwork and that will still be going on so updates will be slow <333 )

anyway ― thank you so much for reading! i know i say this every chapter but i love you all huge amounts <3