Johns feelings for you started to shift after a month of you working for him. You had both gotten into a steady routine and were getting used to each other's company, you were getting more confident around the people that you worked with and started wearing clothes that you enjoyed wearing, rather than clothes you thought made you look professional. The first day you ever came to work for the Shelbys, you had on a pair of trousers, a day which John hasn't forgotten since. You seemed to have favoured wearings skirts to work recently, John had noticed, but he wasn't complaining as he knew you'd look good in anything and everything.

You had been wearing a skirt the day everything changed between you and John. You got into work and did all your necessary tasks, you believed it was just a normal day, but John, on the other hand, was frustrated the moment you sat down at your desk. He wasn't sure if you had noticed that your stockings were on full display to him, but he didn't really care as he was finding it difficult to concentrate on anything except them.

You were silently killing him as he nervously bounced his leg up and down behind his desk, hoping somehow to ease the tension that was building around him. He found it even worse that you had no idea what you were doing to him, you were just simply doing your work, he couldn't believe what kind of effect you had on him.

You, of course, knew exactly what you were doing. You could see how uncomfortable John was and you were loving every minute of it. You could see him from the corner of your eye as you did your paperwork and you were determined to see how far you could go before he cracked.

You knew you had to step it up a notch when you saw that John had calmed slightly, you shifted in your seat, trying to make your next moves appear to be as seamless as possible. You crossed one leg on top of the other and ran your hand along your thigh, exposing the garter of your stockings to John. You never once looked up from the paperwork on your desk and silently prayed that he was watching your every move.

He was, you realized when you looked up for a split second to find him already looking at you with his jaw clenched and his hand placed firmly on his knee, holding the majority of his body weight upwards. You gave him an innocent smile, as you normally would, and continued on with your work, trying your hardest to ignore the butterflies in your stomach.

You carried on with your work for an hour or two, until you eventually got bored and looked up into Johns office, finding him emersed in paperwork. You heard the telephone ring from your desk and quickly picked it up. "Shelby Company Limited, Y/N speaking, how may I help you?" you asked, you saw John's head shoot up at the sound of noise outside the office and you made eye contact with him as you continued your conversion with the man on the phone.

You bit your lip slightly as you listened to the man, and raised your eyebrows at John when he requested to speak with him. John furrowed his eyebrows at you causing you to smile and point at the phone and then towards him. He nodded his head when he seemed to understand your message so you redirected the call and hung up from your end. John leaned back in his chair as he took the call, but never seemed to remove his eyes from yours. He was staring at you with a look of hunger in his eyes and you were starting to think that you may have taken your game to far.

You tried to go back to work, putting an end to your childish game. Out of habit, you bit your lip as you calculated numbers, you hadn't even noticed you were doing it until you heard the phone slam down. Your head shot up and a shiver ran down your spine when you saw John motioning for you to come into his office.

You took a deep breath as you stood up, flatting out your skirt before you walked the short distance to his office and opened the door. "Everything alright, Mr Shelby?" you asked, an innocent look plastered on your face.

John scoffed at your words. "Would you like a drink?" he asked as he walked to the other side of his room, you made your way closer to his desk, wondering what the hell was happening and if you were about to get fired.

"Em no thank you, I don't drink while I work."

"You don't think it's ok to drink while working, but you think it's ok to tease me all day and not let me get any work done, huh doll?" he spoke as he took a predatory step towards you, causing you to walk backwards and lean on his desk.

"I'm sorry?"

"Don't act all innocent now, darling" he scoffed as he swallowed his drink in one long gulp. He leant down to place it beside you on the table. You could feel his breath on your shoulder and you bit your lip to stop yourself from letting out any noise. John straightened up and his eyes immediate fell towards your lips. He hand moved to gently grab your chin, his tumb removing your lip from your teeth before his hands fell down to hold the desk, entrapping you between him and the desk. "Bite your lip one more time. I dare you," he whispered as he looked deeply into your eyes.

You felt your breath hitch in your throat and john smiled mischievously at the sound. "We shouldn't be doing this, John" you warned, although your body seemed to be betraying you as you leaned closer to him.

"And why the fuck not?" he wondered, his head ducking down to be eye level with you.

"It's wrong, I'm your secretary, Imagine if Tommy found out-"

"Tell me you don't want this. Tell me and ill step back."

You, once again, bit your lip at his words, knowing that there was no way you could tell him you didn't want this when you had constantly dreamt about it for over a month. You opened your mouth to speak but before you could get any words out, John had slammed his lips onto yours, his two hands cupped your face, pulling you into him while his body pushed you further against his desk.

You kissed him back with as much force as you could, grabbing the sides of his suit jacket and pulling him even closer to you. You were certain he could feel every curve of your body and the only thought going through your mind was that you wanted him even closer.

John eventually pulled away, his chest rising and falling rapidly with every breath the took. He closed his eyes as he rested his forehead against yours. "Told you to stop biting that fuckin' lip, Y/N"

You brought your hand up to gently run your fingers over the side of his face. His eyes fluttered open at the feeling, causing a smile to grace your face. "Make me."

Those words seemed to be a breaking point for john. His eyes darkened in colour as he shoved the books off his desk and placed you on top of it. Standing in between your legs, he ran his hands along your thighs as he kissed you again, with more passion this time. One of his hands moved to grab the side of your neck while the other squeezed your thigh. You involuntary let out a moan and John grinned at the sound.

His mouth moved to your neck, kissing every bit of flesh that he could find until he found your sweet spot. He began to suck lightly on the patch of skin before pulling away and blowing lightly on it. "No hickeys, John," you warned.

He laughed as he placed a quick peck to your lips. "I'm afraid its too late for that, sweetheart. Besides, it'd be nice to look at tomorrow, a little reminder so to speak." You rolled your eyes at him, the action being cut off as he applied the tiniest amount of pressure to your throat. "None of that love."

"Just kiss me you idiot" you moaned as he resumed his previous position. You felt his hand move higher on your thigh, hissing lightly as he lifted your garter and let it fall against your skin.

"Now these have caused a tremendous amount of pain for me, think id prefer to just take them off, hmm?"

"John your anyone could walk past" you scolded, although your eyes were closed and you were leaning into his touch, so you doubt you put up much of a fight.

"Lets put on a show then," he grinned before kneeling down and removing your stockings at a painstakingly slow pace.

You had been dating Tommy for a little over a year, having known him for five, and it still amazed you the effect that he had on you. You still managed to get nervous around him and seemed to want to pounce on his body every time that you saw him. You thought that your feelings for him would fade over time but they just seemed to get stronger each time that you saw him.

You kept eye contact with Tommy, but when you saw his eyes flicker down to your lips you couldn't help but let your eyes wander to his own. You had kissed him plenty of times but still managed to crave the feeling of his lips against yours. Your gaze flickered back up towards his eyes to find him already staring at you. You leaned in close, his nose brushed against yours and your eyes fell shut as you pursed your lips, longing for the feeling of his lips against yours, but the kiss never came and when you opened your eyes again you noticed that he was no longer pushed against you.

"Payback, love" he explained as you rolled your eyes at him and pushed yourself off the wall.

"Dickhead" you muttered as you opened the door to the Shelby household, almost immediately stopping upon seeing a letter planted on the floor by your feet, you picked it up and felt your heart pick up its pace upon seeing Tommy's name on the cover, the stamp of the British Army in the corner.

You quickly passed it to Tommy, pushing it into his chest without looking in his direction. You had a good idea of what the letter said and you weren't necessarily happy about it. You knew about the war and how many men had died while fighting for their country. You knew it was selfish but you didn't want Tommy to become one of those men, you didn't want him to be affected by the horrors that he would see while protecting his country, while protecting you. You ran up to his room with tears in your eyes, Tommy attempted to follow you but stopped upon hearing Polly's protest in the kitchen.

He opened the letter in the hall with his hands shaking slightly. He was being drafted to war. He knew it would happen sooner or later, he just didn't know that it would affect you and him, so much.

"All of you" he heard Polly speak from the kitchen door, he furrowed his eyebrows at her as he folded the letter and placed it into his pocket. "You, Arthur, John, you're all going to war and there's nothing that I can do to stop it" she sighed. Tommy looked closely at her and noticed her puffy red eyes for the first time. He wanted to speak, to say something but he didn't know what he could say that would make the situation any better so he just remained silent as she wiped her tears with a crumpled tissue. "Give her some time, Tom. It's a hard thing to process." Tommy nodded his head at her words and sat down in the small sitting room, thinking about what he was going to do with you for the next two weeks until he was sent away to another country, possibly never seeing you again.

Tommy reckons he sat in that room for an hour until he built up the courage to go talk to you. He quietly climbed up the stairs and when he opened the door to his room he noticed you lying on his bed with your back facing the door, he knew you weren't asleep as you let out a sniffle every few seconds. He gently closed the door behind him and made his way to his small bed, sitting on the edge with you behind him.

"Are you awake?" he whispered although he was almost certain that he knew the answer. You didn't reply, a clear insight into how you were feeling, upset. Not at him, Tommy assumed, but at the situation at hand. "We still have two weeks together, darling" he spoke, trying to lighten the mood, and upon hearing nothing but silence, he continued to talk, "I'd like to spend the next few days making happy memories with you for when I leave, you know...so I have something positive to think of when I'm stood in the face of evil, I don't want my last memories of you to be full of your sad face, not when I consider you to be the light of my life, I just-"

Tommy cut himself off when he felt your arms wrap around his chest and pull him into you, dragging him to lay down in the bed beside you."Two weeks?" you asked as you lightly ran your fingers along his cheekbone, trying to memorize every single detail of his face as if your life depended on it. Tommy nodded his head.

"Two weeks," he whispered, afraid that if he spoke any louder he would break the trance that you seemed to be in. You hadn't even noticed that Tommy had pecked your lips until he had pulled away and whispered goodnight to you. You immediately pulled him back into you when your brain had caught up to reality and gave him a longer, more passionate one .

"I love you" you whispered when you pulled away and smiled when you saw the corners of his lips perk up.

"Say it again" he demanded with his eyes still shut.

"I love you, Thomas Shelby, always have and always will"

Tommy fell asleep happy that night, knowing that his favourite girl loved him and would be waiting for him when he came back from war. You, on the other hand, spent the night with tears in your eyes as you stared at Tommys sleeping face, wondering how you were going to survive without him. You knew you were going to help Polly keep the family business up and running. You were going to become an independent woman and you vowed that you would put up a strong facade until Tommy came home, even if your heart was breaking bit by bit each day.

* * *

You spent the next two weeks with Tommy doing anything that your heart desired, from going to the beach to a night out in London town. You and Tommy had made the best memories, and you almost forgot that he was going to war.

The day before Tommy was sent away, he had brought you breakfast in bed, something he rarely did as he hated the feeling of the crumbs against his legs as he slept, but you knew it wouldn't matter anymore as he would only have to sleep on it for one more night until he was shipped away to sleep on the cold grass of the french fields.

After you had finished your breakfast you brought Tommy to local Garrison pub, where the whole neighbourhood was throwing a farewell party for all the men being sent to war. It was a good chance for the men to enjoy their last moments of freedom together. It was also a good chance for the women to catch up and support each other. You felt an overwhelming sense of love and protection as you talked to your friends and you knew that thanks to these women, you would survive however long the war lasted. It was time for the women to put on their big girl trousers and get the work done. Something that you were now ready for.

At the end of the evening, you all sang drunkenly in a big circle in the centre of the pub with your arms linked together, drinks splashing onto the floor, smiles on everyone's faces and tears in their eyes. By the time you and Tommy had made your way home, it was just past 1am. You had to silently creep up the stairs, Tommy gently placing his hand over your mouth when you let our a childish giggle.  "Shhh," he whispered as he attempted to contain his own laughter, but he failed miserably and you both ended up sitting on the stairs laughing loud enough to wake the neighbours.

You and Tommy eventually made your way to his room, you quickly walked the short distance to his bed and took off your heels as he gently closed the door. You placed your heels to the side and stood up, getting ready to go to sleep, but Tommy stopped you by placing his hands on either side of your face. You looked up at him in confusion. "Y'alright?" you whispered to him, but instead of answering Tommy pulled you into a gentle kiss which you immediately reciprocated, your hands falling to the side of his shirt, pulling him closer into you.

The kiss soon became heated and one of Tommy's hands trailed down your neck to your thighs where he gave them a light tap, indicating that he wanted you to jump. You obliged and wrapped your legs around his torso. His hands moved to squeeze your bum while your hands moved to his hair, pulling lightly on the dark locks when you felt him suck harshly on your neck.

"Tommy" you moaned and were about to kiss him when he pushed you onto the bed, a light gasp leaving your lips at the sudden movement. It wasn't long until Tommy climbed on top of you, resuming his previous actions and before you knew it you were undressed, words of praise being whispered into your ear as Tommy made love to you.

The moment the doors closed behind you, you took a step out of his grasp and took a deep breath. "We need to break up" you spoke, not daring to look at your boyfriend as you spoke the words that would haunt you forever.

"If this is about me missing date night I'm deeply sorry, Y/N, but some important things crept up that I couldn't just ignore," he gently grabbed your arm as he spoke to you, furrowing his eyebrows when you removed it out of his grip, "if it means that much to you, I'll make sure to never miss a date with you again" he continued.

"It's not about that Tommy" you sighed

He moved to stand in front of you and placed his hands on your face, forcing you to look him in his eyes. "Then what is it about? Tell me, so that I can fix it" he pleaded. Tommy had lost many things in his life and he was adamant that he wasn't going to lose you too, at least not without a fight.

You struggled in his grip but his hands remained on the sides of your face. He wore his usual serious expression on his face, one that you had grown so used to over the years that you had known him. You felt tears well up in your eyes and you didn't even realise you had told him until his face dropped and his grip had loosened. "I'm getting married" you had whispered.

At first, Tommy thought he had imagined the words that had just left your lips, but when he saw the pained expression on your face he immediately took a step away from you, as if touching you had burned his skin. "You fucking what?" he sneered, an accusing finger thrown in your direction as he shook his head.

"There nothing I can do about it, Tom!" you cried as you sank down the wall to sit on the floor, you placed your head in your hands as Thomas paced forwards and backwards in front of you, making you more nervous than you thought possible.

"What do you mean there's nothing that you can do? Don't fucking marry the guy!" Thomas practically shouted, waving his arms around in anger as he stepped towards you.

"I can't!"

"Give me one good reason why you can't"

"Because I didn't have a choice in the matter, Tommy" you shouted

You then spent the night explaining your situation to Tommy, telling him that there was nothing that he could do to stop the wedding from happening, he protested, of course, but you had cut him off with a passionate kiss. The minute you had pulled away Tommy looked at you with the most emotion he had ever shown you and you knew, at that moment, he was vulnerable and you were about to break his heart.

"Stay" he had whispered, you closed your eyes upon hearing those words, knowing that if you looked at him for a second too long, you would cave in. Instead, you whispered goodbye to him and walked away, not daring to look back at Thomas in fear that you would break down.

* * *

That was five days ago.

It had been five days since you had seen the man you were in love with.

A lot had happened in those five days.

The wedding had been arranged as soon as you said yes. Your family had raved about how fast the days flew by, but you didn't feel the same way.

You were busy, of course, with your mother bringing you dress shopping almost every day, even after you had said yes to all the dresses she had picked out for you and being asked about the smallest details for the ceremony such as the colour of the flowers and what you wanted to do with your hair. So yes, time might have flown for everyone else but for you, each second without Thomas went slower than the last and as you were sat in front of a mirror with your white dress clinging to your body, you knew that the next fifty minutes would go by even slower and then you would be married.

A part of you wanted it to be over and done with, to have the stress of your fathers' debt finally lifted off your parents' shoulders, but the other part of you wanted to run away and find Tommy and never leave his side again. You knew that wasn't possible though as you loved your father and you would do anything to make sure that he wasn't killed, even if it meant sacrificing your own happiness for as long as you lived.

Before you knew it your father had shown up in your dressing room and you knew that the time had come. He made a big deal of complimenting your appearance. You didn't know if he was being genuine or if he was just trying to cheer you up, either way, it had brought a smile to your face and you had found yourself thinking that married life might not be that bad.

You exited the room together and took a deep breath while you looked at the big wooden doors in front of you, you nodded at your father and he slowly opened them. You forced yourself to take a step, but your eyes remained on the red carpet on the floor, you only looked up when you were halfway down the aisle and noticed that there was nobody waiting for you, not even the priest.

Had you been stood up?

You feared for your fathers' life and when you heard the doors close behind you, your palms started to sweat, you looked up at your father, who had a big smile on his face.

You furrowed your eyebrows and looked behind you, a gasp leaving your lips as you saw your three best friends stood in front of you. Tommy, Arthur and Ada.

You hadn't even noticed that Tommy was walking towards you until he had crashed his lips onto yours. You, under shock, had taken a few moments to respond but kissed his back with as much passionate as you could muster. You could hear cheering coming from your family behind you and although you felt a blush creep onto your cheek, you continued to kiss Tommy, savouring the moment as you didn't know how long it would last.

You eventually pulled away and smiled at the man in front of you, his eyes were still closed and his forehead was pressed against your own. You didn't dare to look away as you didn't want to be forced back into the reality that you were supposed to marry someone else.

You saw Thomas' eyes flutter open and once they did, his hands immediately came to your cheeks where he wiped away the tears that had made its way down your face. You hadn't even realised that you had started crying and couldn't help but let out a laugh upon seeing the residue of your mascara smudged all over Thomas' hands.

You saw the sides of his mouth perk upwards before he spoke to you in a low voice. "I missed that sound" he admitted, "I missed you" he continued.

"I missed you too, Tom, but I'm supposed to be getting married, like, right now-"

Thomas had cut you off before you could speak. "what do you think I'm doing here, huh?" he asked.

You could see your relatives sneaking past you and out of the door but you didn't pay attention to them. "What?" you asked, your brain unable to produce any other words.

"Its over. I dealt with it. You're not fucking getting married to that twat. And besides, did you really think someone would really just leaving you at the altar while you look like that?" he smirked, by then everyone had left the church, only you and Tommy were stood in the middle of the aisle.

"How did you do it?" you wondered.

"Don't worry about that, love" Tommy dismissed and when he saw your eyebrows shoot up in worry he scoffed "I didn't kill the lad, I'll admit I thought of it, but i didn't," he admitted.

"Then how?"

"I do own a legitimate business, Y/N"

"So you just stole money from Shelby Company Limited? I don't think your business partners would be too happy with that" you scolded, a playful smirk planted on your face.

"Fuck them"

"Tommy!"

"Y/N, i spent three days of my life thinking that I had lost you forever, i couldn't deal-"

"Three days? Did you just forget about me for the last two?"

"I spent the last two days executing my plan"

"Your plan?"

"Yes."

"And you just knew this plan would work?"

"Yes."

"Whys that?"

"You don't fuck with the Peaky Blinders, darling" he whispered before closing the gap between you both. You could feel his hand gripping your hair as he kissed you, his other hand gripping your thigh, pulling you towards him.

Your big white dress prevented you and Tommy from gaining any friction and Tommy made it clear that he wasn't pleased with it by letting out a grunt and moving his hand from your hair to the zip of your dress.

"Tommy" you moaned, you had wanted to tell him to stop, but having not kissed him in five days, your body didn't seem to be cooperating with your mind.

"Say that again" he demanded as he squeezed your thigh.

It was only when Tommy was halfway done zipping down your dress that you pulled away from him, but his mouth followed, desperate to return to your previous actions. "Tommy" you spoke breathlessly as you planted your other foot on the ground. He opened his eyes to look at you, his hair was a mess and his lips were swollen. It was surely a sight for sore eyes. "We can't do this. Not here." You clarified as you tried to catch your breath.

"We can't?" he asked with squinted eyes, you could see his chest rising and falling with every breath.

"Tommy we're in a bloody place of worship for crying out loud" you uttered.

Tommy nodded his head as if it was the first time he acknowledged where you were. You, in your flustered state, didn't know what else to say so you made your way towards your dressing room to get changed in your usual attire. You had just past Tommy when he had grabbed your arm and turned you to face him.

* * *

You had been busy the whole day, doing work around the betting shop, calculating the books and counting the money and by the time you were done, it was late to your standards. You knew Tommy would kill you if he caught you still working so you decided to pack up and tell him that you were on your way home.

You knocked on his door and walked in without waiting to be told to come in, you didn't know if it was out of force of habit or that your mind was in a universe of its own. You opened the door as you were fixing the buttons of your coat and immediately regretted it.

"Tommy I- nevermind," you spoke as you turned back around to leave, a group of men stared at you as you turned. You cursed yourself as you forgot Tommy had a meeting with the blinders today.

"Y/N, come in." You heard Tommy speak in his usual stern voice. You slowly turned back around, your cheeks tinted a light shade of pink.

"I'm sorry Tom, I completely forgot-"

"Come here" Tommy cut you off, and tilted his head, signalling for you to cross the group of men and walk towards the front of the table where he sat. The room was silent as you walked up, the only noise that filled the room was the clicking of your heels.

He patted his thigh when you stood next to him, a proud smirk on his face as he watched his men look anywhere except at you. He liked showing you off and when you sat yourself down, he whispered in your ear, "I'll only be a few minutes, love, then I'll walk you home."

He had one of his hands holding your waist to ensure you didn't fall while the other cradled a cigarette. "Right where were we?" he asked, addressing the room and continuing on with the meeting as normal.

The meeting continued smoothly for a few moments and you eventually found yourself enjoying learning about this side of the business, although your heart dropped when you heard a snide comment slip out of a new blinders mouth.

"I thought whores weren't allowed in meetings, Thomas?" he grinned, his grin morphing into a frown when nobody else laughed along with his comment. You felt Thomas tense from beside you, his grip on your waist tightening, enough to possibly leave a slight mark, but not enough to hurt.

"Fucking what?" he asked, a look of pure hatred planted on his face as he narrowed his eyes at the young boy.

"No whores? Isn't that your number one rule?" he defended as he crossed his arms against his chest and slouched down into his chair. Thomas scoffed at the man, you saw him quickly clench his fist from the corner of your eye.

"Tommy its ok, simple mistake," you whispered in attempt to defuse the situation.

"It's not ok, I'm not going to tolerate you being disrespected right in front of me, especially by one of my own men." he shot back, his eyes never leaving the poor blinder who knew he had fucked up.

"Everybody out!" he demanded, "except you," he shouted, pointing his finger at the blinder, "no, you and I will be having a little chat."

Tommy then turned to look at you, a softer look in his eyes as he whispered, "wait in your office, ill only be a moment," he then gave your forehead a kiss and waited until you had closed the door to speak again. You could hear the shouts coming from him as you walked along the corridor and you were certain you even heard the smashing of glass at one moment.

It was when the building became silent that you began to worry. You were just about to check up on Tommy and the boy when you heard a knock on your door. You opened it to find the blinder stood there, his head bent downwards and his hat between his hands.

"I'm sincerely sorry about how I talked about you a few moments ago, you didn't deserve that, I'm sure you're a lovely lady and, well I'm sorry."

"And?" you heard Thomas speak from behind him.

"And I'm an asshole."

"Good now fuck off," Thomas demanded and the blinder quickly walked away while Thomas walked into your office, his hands immediately going to your waist.

"You didn't have to make it such a big deal, you know." you giggled, placing your hands on his shoulders as you looked up at him.

"Of course I did." He shot back, his lips turning up in a slight smile. You laughed at his words and gave him a quick kiss.

"Thank you," you whispered once you pulled apart.

Thomas then pulled you into him and bit your lip, slipping his tongue into your mouth and kissing you in the most passionate way he could. You walked backwards slowly until your legs hit the back of your table and Thomas lifted you up onto it, standing between your legs, his hands now resting on your thighs.

He moved his mouth to your neck where he placed a trail of kisses from your jaw down to the base of your neck. He squeezed your thigh before resting his forehead against yours.

You and your father didn't have a good relationship, Tommy knew that, but what he didn't know about was the fact that after your father had one too many drinks at the Garrison, he would come home and torment you.

The first time he had laid his hands on you was unfortunately not the last and you had reached your breaking point when he had thrown a whiskey bottle at you late one night, it had cut your cheek and you could feel the blood running down your face in seconds. You had attempted to move past him and out of the house, but he had pushed you against the wall, his hand clasped against your neck as he spit in your face.

Your hands clawed at his arms and tears welled up in your eyes as you struggled to breathe. You somehow managed to escape his grasp when you kicked him in between his legs, he had doubled over in pain and you took that as your opportunity to escape and ran out of the door. You ran as fast as you possibly could, your tears mixed with the blood on your face and you could tell by the looks passerby's were giving you that you looked as horrible as you felt.

You ran without looking back until you had reached the Shelby household. You screamed for Tommy as you continuously pounded on the door, diving straight into his arm when you saw his alarmed face. A wave of nausea floodedTommy when he saw your beat-up face and he immediately closed the door behind you. He led you into the sitting room where he sat you down and placed his hands on the side of your face, tilting it upwards so he could get a better view of your injuries.

He was heartbroken to see you beat up and a small tear rolled down his cheek when you winced at his touch. "What happened, darling?" he asked and his hands ran up and down your back as you recalled the events that happened just moments before.

On the outside, Tommy had looked unfazed, but on the inside, he had already planned out your father's murder. "I'll have a chat with him as soon as I get you cleaned up, yeah?"

Tommy had kept true to his word and you almost looked as good as new when you emerged from the bathroom, except for the bruising around your neck, which would heal, and the noticeable scar on your cheek, which would not.

Tommy had given you some of Ada's clothes to sleep in and insisted that you stayed with him and his family until he could afford to buy a home for just the two of us.

You were lying on the bed when you heard Tommy get ready to leave the house. "Don't kill him, Tom" you whispered and you barely saw him nod before he left the bedroom and trudged downstairs.

When Tommy had come home hours later, he had cuddled up next to you, you could see the cuts on his knuckles and the blood on his shirt but you thought nothing of it. You slept soundly that night and never heard from your father again.

* * *

The business was booming when the Shelby boys had returned from the war and Tommy was finally able to buy a house for just the two of you. Your relationship was better than ever. Having not seen each other for five years you were both keen on making up for the lost time. Which was what you were currently doing on a crisp Friday morning.

The cold, cool morning air was a huge contrast to the hot, sweaty air in your shared bedroom. The windows were wet with condensation and fog and it was at that moment that you were grateful you didn't have neighbours for miles.

Tommy was holding you close to him with one hand while the other intertwined with your own above your head. He maintained eye contact with you as he thrust deep inside you. "Fuck, you're so beautiful." he'd whisper in your neck when you arched your back.

A moan escaped your lips when he began to kiss your neck and you could feel Tommy smirk into your neck. "Do that again," he demanded and sped up until you were a moaning mess underneath him, both of you reaching your climax simultaneously. Tommy stroked the scar on your cheek as he looked into your eyes.

"I love you."

* * *

Tommy repeated those words to you as he left the house to go to work, you smiled at him and pecked his lips. "Don't be home too late," you warned with an accusing finger, "I have something special planned." You grinned, biting your lip as you looked him up and down.

Tommy internally groaned at his wife. "I'll be back sooner than you think, love. You're going to be the death of me." He shook his head as he walked towards his car, you blew him a kiss as he drove away, unknown to both of you that your father was watching the interaction with disgust from a distance.

You continued about your daily business without a care in the world, unaware of the danger that loomed around the corner. It was when you heard the front door open that your ears perked up. "Tommy is that you? Are you home already?" you called from your place in the kitchen and when you saw your fathers face your heart dropped, as did the knife that you were holding.

"Good morning, sweetheart." he grinned and a scream escaped your mouth, hopefully loud enough to warn the maids not to come down.

"What are you doing here?" you asked as you took a step back, your hands were trembling and you tried to calm yourself. You had a gun tucked away underneath your dress, you just needed to grab it without any suspicion.

"Can a father not pay his daughter a visit?"

"You are not a father to me!" you roared. Your father laughed at your words and crouched down to pick up the knife you had dropped. Your hand immediately grabbed your gun and you pointed it towards him. "Do not take one more step towards me," you demanded and your father visibly tensed when he saw the weapon.

"You don't know how to fire a gun," he remarked.

"Try me."

You had somehow managed to keep your father distracted long enough to hear car tire outside. Tommy was already on the way home when the maids had tried to contact him, so he wasn't prepared for trouble when he opened the door.

All Tommy saw was red when he saw your fathers face again. His gun was out within a second and he had it aimed at him without hesitation. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill right now."

You father panicked and threw the knife he was holding at Tommy, which he had thankfully managed to dodge. You screamed out Tommy's name when you saw the knife fly across the room and you had no idea what came over you as you shot your father in the back. He let out a pained scream as he fell down, groaning in agony when Tommy pulled him up by his collar and dragged him outside.

Unfortunately for Tommy, he knew that he had to fight his urges as he was completely aware of the danger that you would be put in if you were associated with him. He had experienced it first hand with Grace.

He continued to push his feelings aside until he caught word of a planned ambush on Small Heath later that day. He didn't know if it was true or not, but he did know that you lived in the area and he wouldn't have been able to live with himself if something was to happen to you, especially without ever telling you his true feelings towards you. That was why he had rushed into your house, shouting your name as he checked every room for you. He felt the breath being knocked out of his body when he realised you were nowhere to be found and ran to his aunts house as fast as he could, praying to the God above that you were with her and that is where he is now; telling his aunt about the planned attack and asking her to protect herself and you at all costs.

The gentle shaking of your shoulder had knocked you out of your trance and when you looked up, Tommy was already looking down at you, the slightest smile on his face.

"Come. I need to talk to you."

He waited for you to get up off your chair and led you into the hall with his hand on the small of your back. "Is everything ok, Tommy?" you asked his as your folded your arms across your chest.

"I can handle it. I just need you to do one thing."

You nodded your head at his words. "Of course. Anything."

Tommy grabbed hold of your shoulders, his touch was almost as gentle as one of a feather. "I need you to stay here. Don't you dare- don't you dare leave this house until I say it is safe to do so." He was looking intently into your eyes and you felt a shiver run down your back.

"Is there trouble coming?"

"Nothing that I can't take care of, love." His words were now as soft as his touch, you saw his eyes drift down to your lips for a split second and you stood on your tippy-toes, giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek before whispering in his ear.

"Take care of yourself, Tom. Be careful for once will ya?" You leaned back to look at him with a cheeky grin on your face, your hands resting on his shoulders while his lay on your waist. Polly smirked at the sight from her seat in the kitchen.

"I expect to see you here when I return." His tone was stern but his eyes were soft.

"Yes sir." you nodded, trying to defuse some of the tension.

Tommy was reluctant to leave you, he gave a gentle squeeze to your waist before forcing himself away from you and towards the door. He intended to eliminate the threat from Small Heath as fast as he possibly could, he just hoped that you'd listened to his advice.

* * *

You didn't.

Polly had forced you out of the house when you both had heard the back door open, she had a gun in her hand and a determined look on her face. "Take this," she demanded as he handed you a small pistol, you gave her a wary glance as you took it. "just in case," she reassured as she pulled you into a hug and gave you a kiss to the top of your head. "be careful," she whispered as she pushed you into the other direction.

You heard shots as you rushed out of the door, you bumped straight into a chest as soon as you stepped foot outside and you were dragged to the side of the house. You kicked and screamed in the man's arm, shooting the gun in your hand mindlessly as he continued to drag you. You could hear gunshots coming from inside the house and you prayed that Polly was ok and that Tommy would return soon.

Tommy had figured out that the ambush was a distraction and had expected to return to a quiet house, he didn't expect to hear multiple gunshots to be fired once he and his brothers had reached the door. He and his brothers had their weapons drawn in seconds. The three entered the house to see Polly standing in the kitchen with a dead man sprawled on the floor. She looked up at Tommy before turning her head in every possible direction in search for you.

"Wheres Y/N?" she asked and Tommy felt his heart drop at the words that he hoped he would never have to hear. Just as he was about to search the entire house for you, he heard your scream come from outside. He didn't even pause to think before he was out the door.

he ran to the side of the house where he saw you pushed against the wall, a gun in between you and your assassin. He proceeded towards you, his gun pointed towards the man but stopped once he heard a gunshot. "Y/N" he whispered.

Dread began to crawl up his spine, that was until you pushed the man off yourself and threw the gun as far away from you as possible. You ran to Tommy as fast as you could, jumping into his arms and hugging him tightly. "Oh thank god."

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare fucking leave me again," you spoke, repeating his words from earlier.

"Never," he whispered before he placed his mouth on top of yours, his hand moving to hold your jaw, tilting it slightly for easier access. Your hand played with his hair, the other pulling him in even closer with the side of his jacket.  "Let's get you cleaned up," he spoke once you had pulled away.

* * *

You were sat on the bed while Tommy ran the bath in the connecting bathroom, he had washed the blood from your face but your body was still covered with it, he emerged after a few moments, his shirt rolled up to his elbows and a towel in his hands.

"Your bath is ready."

"Thank you, Tommy" you smiled as you walked into the bathroom and checked the water. You looked up at him as you stood back up. "I appreciate it."

Tommy nodded, scratching the back of his neck before speaking again. "I suppose I'll leave you to it."

You called out his name as he stepped out of the door, you blushed when he returned.

"What's wrong?"

Instead of responding, you simply began to undress, first slipping your dress over your head, leaving you in your underdress and stockings. "Stay," you whispered. The look in his eyes caused goosebumps to form all over your skin.

"Y/N, if I stay, I won't be able to contain myself." his voice was gruff, and you could tell he was already constraining himself. You continued looking into his eyes as you slipped out of your thin dress, leaving you in only your undergarments.

"I'm tired of holding myself back, Tom. I think you are too."