peaky blinders imagines + smut.

john shelby: night-time love. (smut warning)

The room was pitch black as you leisurely opened your eyes, blinking a few times to wake yourself up. You were terrified to look to your left in case John was not there. The nightmares had stopped since he had returned to Small Heath but the fear of losing him were always lingering about, refusing to leave you alone. Especially at the dead of night when it was quiet, and you couldn't hear his infectious laugh that made your heart skip a beat every single time.

"John," you quietly whispered as you turned onto your side, your hand moving out to John's side of the bed. Relief came over your body as you felt his warmth on the palm of your hand, the heat of his skin immediately making you feel better. "Thank God," you whispered as you rested your forehead on his chest, not noticing John stir awake until his hand moved to your cheek.

"What's wrong, darling?" he asked, his voice groggy yet full of panic as he moved your head so you were looking at him. Not that you could see a thing in the room, it was gone two in the morning and everything was silent apart from yours and John's breathing. John pressed a light kiss against your lips when he noticed your inconsistent breathing, an attempt to calm you down. "Hey, tell me what's wrong otherwise I can't help you, can I?"

John felt a tear land against his hand that was pressed on your cheek, his heart splitting into two.

"I just had a nightmare, that's all," you told him, not wanting to go into too much detail in case he laughed at you for being foolish. Deep down, you knew that he wouldn't do such a thing.

"What was this nightmare about?" John asked, repeating the question when you refused to answer.

"I received a telegram which told me that you had died, God it sounds stupid." You chuckled half-heartedly as you snuggled in closer to John. "I used to have a dream similar to that all the time when you were away, woke up nearly every single morning with tears in my eyes. It stopped when you came back but after the other day, it must have triggered it, I don't really know," you admitted, referring to the shoot-out in the street between Kimber and the Shelby's. "I just don't want to lose you, ever."

John shuffled down the bed a little bit so he was face-to-face with you. "It's not stupid, not in the slightest. I'm sorry for scaring you the other day, it was never my intention and if I knew how much it had affected you then - "

"It's not your fault, John," you interrupted, not wanting him to feel any guilt. None of it was his fault - the war or the business - John just got dragged into it all like he always did. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

"I'm glad you did," John mumbled as he kissed your cheek sweetly, the action innocent. "Every time I slept during the war, I dreamt of you. I always wondered what you were doing, what you wearing, if you and Polly were getting on alright with business, they'd mostly be positive dreams but then there would be some and they would petrify me."

"What happened?"

"You'd given up on waiting for me and had moved on to someone else. It sounds daft and I knew that you would never leave me but it didn't stop me from worrying a little. I'll never forget the way I felt when I saw you waiting for me at the train station, felt like a dream."

"I could never leave you, love," you whispered.

Pressing your lips against John's, you felt safe again as he wrapped his arm around you and brought you in closer, no room between your bodies as he deepened the kiss. It was intimate moments like this that you had missed when he was away with the army - the way his hand felt on your naked skin, firing up every nerve inside of your body and the way his mouth felt against yours as it moved with yours like a perfect melody.

The temperature in the room heightened as you rolled your hips against John's crotch, a whimper slipping out of his mouth like silk as he wrapped his fingers in your hair, pulling your head back so he could move his lips to your neck. You wrapped one leg over John and attempted to roll him over so you were on top but John was strong enough to keep you in place as he continued to leave marks across your neck, a reminder in the morning that he was still there and would be forever.