god is a woman (arthur shelby.)

two.

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Rowan was dancing like no one was watching. Except they were, and she looked like a twat.

Her brown hair was flying in all directions whilst her dress floated as she spun round. The sound of her metal soled shoes on the wooden floor was enough to make you want to rip your ears off.

"Who the bloody hell is she?" Arthur shouted over the others as he inquired and observed the mess in front of him.

"No one knows. She turned up about an hour ago and has been drinking non stop since." Harry shrugged and wiped down the bar.

"She doesn't look old enough to remember the war." Arthur joked, causing Harry to laugh.

Arthur continued to watch her as she danced her heart out to the sound of men shouting. He laughed at her naïvety as she failed to notice the blokes around her letching and gawping at her shape.

One man in particular, a man of extra sleaze, let his hand 'accidentally' fall on her waist, before moving it lower and lower. Rowan soon stopped dancing and turned towards him. Arthur half expected her to run away, but to his surprise she did something more.

She slapped him.

It was hard to tell what hurt more for the creep, his cheek or his reputation.

Seeing the anger upon his face, and the shock amongst the others, Arthur decided to step in.

"Come on love." He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away. "She's had a lot to drink."

"I'm fine." She slurred and tried to shove Arthur away, but his body strength was much more than hers.

Arthur lead her to the, for once empty, snug and sat her down in the booth.

"I'm fine." She whined again.

"Let's get you calmed down first of all." Arthur opened the hatch and ordered Harry to fetch him a glass of water.

"I don't need to calm down!" She protested indignantly.

"Kid, you don't even look old enough to drink. How old are you?" He asked and thrusted the glass into her hand.

"I'm not a fucking kid. I'm 21. I'm fed up of being treated like a fucking child." She angrily stood up.

"You certainly act like one." He laughed and took a drag of his cigarette.

Rowan was so small that it took her just a whiff of a cherry liqueur for her to end up plastered. She'd already consumed four whiskeys and a beer, which for a girl of her pint size was enough to put her into cardiac arrest.

"Why are you in a pub alone on a Thursday night if you're a 21 year old girl?" He asked.

Only then did she realise how close they were. Stood in front of him, the poor girl only came up to his nipples. As she looked up, she noticed how their lips were only centimetres apart and that he'd lowered his head towards her.

"I'm new. Pubs are the best place to make friends." She admitted.

"Where are you from?" Arthur grew suspicious of her accent.

He'd had a family meeting earlier that day in which Tommy informed them of a police inspector arriving from Belfast. Whilst the gang hadn't explicitly stolen the munitions, they were certainly keeping hold of something they weren't supposed to. He'd also told them to be alert and cautious, but Arthur was never one for following instructions.

Rowan hesitated before answering, knowing there'd be a certain belief over being from Belfast.

"Galway." She replied carefully.

She truly was the queen of equivocation.

Arthur grumbled something that sounded like a response before removing the empty glass of water from her hands and giving it back to the bar.

"So why are you here?" He continued to interrogate her.

"I want to get drunk." She replied.

"No, I mean why are you in Small Heath? Not really your sort of place, is it?" He sat down in the booth and watched her.

"My dad moved us here for work."She equivocated again. She wasn't lying, but she wasn't telling the full truth in order to protect herself.

"What does he do?" Arthur asked.

Rowan started to panic as her ability to lie vanished on the spot. Her mind was as blank as a sheet of paper as she desperately tried to conceal the reason for her visit.

"Why do you want to know about all this when you've got me to talk to?" She tried switching on the charm in an attempt to distract him.

In her best attempt to make him forget, she leant across the table, her facing getting closer and closer to his. She bit her lip softly and looked him dead in the eye, causing him to smirk ever so slightly.

"Tell you what love, I've got a proposal." He whispered in her ear.

"I'm listening." She replied, feeling his cheek brush against her own hot cheek.

"Give me a blowjob in the wine cellar and I'll give you a pound." His hushed but gruff tones spoke in her ear.

Rowan pulled back for a second with a disgusted look. "I'm not a whore."

"Well-"

"You don't have to pay me to get something from me." She smiled mischievously.

Arthur didn't know how to feel. He'd very rarely come across a girl that had the the cheek to tell him what to do. But somehow he liked it.

"What are you implying?" He smirked.

Rowan's liquid confidence lead her to straddling his lap and flicking her hair over her shoulder, making her feel on top of the world.

"Pubs are a good place to make friends, but also a good place to get laid." She smiled.

Rowan shut her eyes and leant in, waiting for her lips to meet his. Her hands met his shoulders as she felt him relax into the kiss. Arthur's hands. As soon as she felt his hands meet her waist, a thought sprung into her head.

"I don't even know your name." She pulled away, leaving them both slightly out of breath.

"Arthur fucking Shelby. You'd better get used to it, you're gonna hear it a lot around here."

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a/n: i'm sorry i haven't updates in ages but school happened and i was so tired for so long! x