Astor // Arthur Shelby x Reader - Peaky Blinders

Chapter 29

It's dark as I slip beneath the covers, having finally settled the dogs.

Arthur reached for me, and his warm arms pull me close to him. My body settles against his like it's the most natural thing in the world. And already, my stomach begins to flutter.

"You upheld your promise. I'm walking like a newborn fawn," I tell him.

He chuckles. "Sorry about that, gorgeous." He presses his lips to my forehead. "I'll be more gentle next time."

I say, "I wasn't complaining."

"Fucking hell. Do you think the magic potion would even work on us at this point?" He asks.

"Perhaps if we drunk an entire swimming pool of it."

"I wouldn't let you endure a single drop," he says.

I wrap my arms around his neck. "We'll have to find other ways, then."

He kisses me, his hands settling at my waist. "Beginning to worry I'm not satisfying you."

"You are satisfying me most absolutely," I tell him. "The problem is, as soon as I'm satisfied, I find myself craving you yet again."

"Glad it's not just me struggling with that problem," he says, laughing softly. "Do you think it's normal to be at it like jackrabbits?"

"I suppose it is. When two people are as in love as we are."

I rest my hand on his cheek as I kiss him, tracing the outline of his cheekbone with my fingertips. I run them along the length of his face, his eyebrows, down his nose. Across his moustache. His lips. His eyelashes. I take all of him in, learning him. Committing him to memory. He sighs softly at my touch.

"There was a while there, I never thought I'd feel like this again," he tells me. "Never thought I'd know peace."

"During the war?" I ask him quietly.

"During the war. And... afterwards."

My stomach clenches with guilt. "Arthur, I—"

"Don't you dare apologise," he tells me. "We found our way back to each other." His fingers run through my hair.

"Perhaps we were always going to find each other, regardless of whatever got in the way." I kiss him on the forehead before continuing. "Perhaps I was always going to be yours, and you mine, one way or another."

"I've been yours since nineteen bloody fourteen," he murmurs. "All this time."

I smile. "And now we'll finally be able to go for that dawn walk you promised me."

He groans. "With all that mud? You'll wreck my best fucking shoes."

"You can borrow a pair of wellies. We have plenty of spares."

He takes my jaw in his hand and kisses me. "Only for you, my girl, would I fucking agree to this."

Our kiss deepens, and before I even realise what I'm doing, I've tangled my legs between his and pulled myself flush against him, setting every nerve of my body alight. I'm not the one to blame, I try to reason. He's the one lying here shirtless, in only his boxers. His bare skin grazing against mine, his moustache each time we kiss...

"We'll have to be more careful," he murmurs. "We'll go see Aunt Pol tomorrow. She can make you a tea, but I'll have to start pulling out. Until you're ready, that is."

Heat rises to my cheeks. "Arthur Shelby, I will not meet your aunt by asking her to prevent a pregnancy!"

"Why not?"

"Because... that's..."

"My beautiful girl, calling me daddy while you tell me you're going to come for me, and now you're too embarrassed to tell anyone about it?"

"Not embarrassed," I correct him. "I'm not usually like that. It's only for you. You have been a bad influence on me, just like I said."

He shakes his head, rubbing his nose against mine in a Eskimo kiss. "I'm not to blame, love. You began moaning for me as soon as I kissed you."

"Anyway," I say pointedly, ignoring his victorious grin, "I track my cycle very closely. We don't need to take precautions until the end of the week."

He says, "My clever girl, you keep getting better and better."

I tell him, "Don't you forget it."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

We spend a great deal of time exploring each other's mouths, our tongues pressing together, brushing, him taking my lower lip between his teeth, and me failing to stifle a soft noise in response. I slide on top of him and his hands push the satin fabric of my strapless nightdress up my torso and over my head.

"How did I become so lucky?" I ask him in a whisper, my hands pressed against his chest.

He's about to reply, until I shift to move the blanket, and the moonlight spilling in through a gap in the curtains washes across the underside of my arm.

"What the fuck's that?" He asks me.

His voice is different than I've known it so far. It stills me. It almost scares me.

"What?" I ask in a hushed whisper.

He takes my arm and lifts it up once more, his eyes fixed on my skin.

On the bruises Luca left there.

I pull my arm free. "It's nothing." He's silent and so I continue, if only to fill the empty air. "I displeased him in public. A few times. I learned my lesson."

He doesn't speak for a moment. I worry I've said too much.

"No man's ever going to lay a fucking hand on you again," he finally says.

His voice is still low, a side to him I have not yet seen. A side he managed to keep under control even after everything he learned so far. This, apparently, is his final straw.

"I won't just kill him," he continues. "I'll make him regret ever being alive."

"Don't you get involved," I try to warn him. "Leave killing Luca Changretta to me."

My words surprise him enough the menace fades from his face.

"I've been thinking about it," I say. "I'll start with his men first. By the time he realises what's happening, it'll be too late. I did consider sinking one of his stupid ships to New York, but that would kill other people, too. When we reach heaven, there's every chance God might excuse killing Luca, but I doubt he'd wave aside another two thousand people."

"You've already thought this through?" Arthur says.

"Of course I have. No man destroys my happiness and gets away with it."

"Reckon I can get to him first," Arthur says, his hands trailing up my thighs. "I'll be sure to leave some of him for you."

"You'll leave all of him, if you know what's good for you."

"He hurt my best girl." He takes my necklace in his fingers, lifting it from my chest for a moment. "You're fucking lucky I'm leaving any of him at all."