"Come in." Tommy said to Sophie after he had gotten over the shock of seeing her.

He was only a betting man when he was as sure as he could be of the odds falling in his favor, and when he had left Sophie earlier that evening, he had truly thought his attempt at doing the right thing would have made her think twice about making their relationship completely intimate. He would have never placed money on the horse that was her coming after him.

He thought, at the very least, he had bought himself more time to figure things out. But clearly there was much more he needed to learn about Sophie. Her lack of patience was something to behold.

"Tea?" He offered, slipping his right arm through one of the suspender straps he had been in the middle of taking off when she knocked. Tommy righted them, wanting to feel put together in her presence.

"Tommy, did you not hear what I said?"

"Oh. I heard you." He had heard her. So very clearly. She finally stepped inside of his flat and he side-stepped past her to shut the door.

"Well?"

"You walked here alone?" He stalled. But the way he asked made it clear he never wanted her to do that again. And certainly not in her current state of dress.

"Obviously. Tommy, you said that if I asked you again that you wouldn't say no." She looked up at him, a fire in her eyes that he knew was a smokescreen for the vulnerability it took to stand in front of him and say those words.

He never made anything easy for anyone. Not even her.

"I need to hear you say it." He swallowed. He needed her to be sure, not just sleepless and unsatisfied and full of bravado. Sure.

"I'm asking you again." She repeated, confused, hands in the pocket of her coat, pushing out the fabric nervously. He found her both so endearing and so damn frustrating.

"No." He shook his head, stepping towards her, "I need you to tell me exactly what you want."

He watched as a pretty flush started to creep up the pale column of her neck, "You know what I want…"

"Say it and I will give it to you." He breathed, waiting, the tension in his body nearly coiled to a breaking point.

She pressed her lips together and then opened them, "I want you inside of me. To take me. To love me."

"My God, Sophie," He kissed her, overwhelmed that she had chosen the exact words his soul wanted to hear. She didn't want this once. Didn't want a fuck. She wanted all of him.

He breathed in the beautiful sounds she started to make as she bared her flushed neck to him and he kissed a trail down to her collarbone. He had her jacket pushed down around her shoulders and then off into a pool around her feet in a few seconds and started to gently guide her further into his flat with his palms against her hips.

Tommy felt out of his mind with need for her, but his place wasn't so big they couldn't make it to bed. She deserved that. Deserved everything.

"Please…" Sophie looked up at him from where he sat her on the edge of his bed, lips raw, and he started to undress for the second time that evening.

"We have all night, love." He told her.

"I never feel like there is enough time with you." She whispered, lifting up her hips to free the bottom of her slip and then pulled it up over her head. Tommy palmed his cock, which was pressing insistently against his trousers, at the sight of her body bared to him for the first time.

"I promise you. All night. All morning. You will not leave this bed until you are ready to." He told her, throwing his shirt onto the ground before he started to work on his trousers. He knew Sophie's words were more than just desire for pleasure. They were searching for a promise that he wouldn't leave her, wouldn't withdraw again.

With his trousers and pants finally pushed off, he joined her on his bed and watched as her innocence caught up with her as the looked at the hardness he had for her between his legs. As much as she could tease him, and had until he had nearly fallen apart, this was new to her.

"You are so beautiful, Soph. My princess of Small Heath. Mine." He kissed her again and then slowly started to move his attentions down her body in search of every single patch of skin that would make her shiver and gasp and moan. And he found many. No woman had ever opened up her body like this so readily, had been so unafraid to express her own pleasure. Had been so genuine in the way they touched him in response to his exploration.

And that was why she was so different. So perfect. His Sophie.

He could have died right there when he finally made his way between her thighs and instead of closing them, afraid of the unknown, she spread even more wantonly out for him. She trusted him. Wanted him. So he kissed up her beautiful folds and squeezed his cock with his hands as she keened from the new sensation.

"I need you Tommy…" She had one hand gripping into the hair at his crown, almost painfully, which only made him harder. As he looked up along the gentle curve of her belly, his nose still pressed against her clit, he watched her fight for a full breath.

"Your pleasure comes first. Always." He told her before tasting her again and wondered if she was the only woman he would ever say that to. Tommy knew he was an attentive lover. But his own satisfaction had always been the driver.

Not here. Not with Sophie. He was close to losing himself on the bedsheets, but he wanted her to come for him first.

"What…oh…oh!" He felt the subtle changes of her body before her moans became more insistent. The extra wetness against his chin, the way her thigh tensed under his left palm. It was heaven when she came against his lips and he replaced them with one of his fingers as he maneuvered so that he could better look at her.

The softness of her eyes shrouded in the haziness of a heady orgasm was intoxicating to him. He wanted her to always look like that. Because of him.

"You're almost ready, love…" he continued to pump one finger inside of her, slowly, letting her adjust, "Does that feel good?"

"I've never felt anything like it," she reached for his forearm and gasped when he added a second finger.

"Not even when you touched yourself thinking of me?"

"Not even then, Tommy, please…" Sophie bit her lip hard enough to draw a pinprick of blood when he buried a third finger inside of her and she thought she was going to burst. She gripped his fingers so tightly that the sensation drew a ragged moan out of him.

He knew he couldn't stand not being inside of her much longer and he gently withdrew his fingers, entranced by the way she involuntarily gasped at the loss of him, "Do you trust me, Sophie?"

He helped her sit up as she nodded and he moved to the head of the bed, sitting so his back was supported by the wall, "Come 'ere, love."

Tommy watched her with a strange sense of pride as she instinctively made her way to him and straddled one knee after the other around his hips. His girl. She trusted him. Knew what she wanted.

He matched the curve of his right thumb through his index finger alongside her breast and her first rib. His other hand found the dent of her hip and he held her in the no man's land of everything they had been and everything they would be after.

He let her take the lead, wanting her to have control in this position, and Sophie didn't hesitate. She relaxed onto him, halfway down his cock before she tensed. He kissed her forehead as she moved through the discomfort and the next time she looked up at him, her face held no hint of pain.

"I'm angry with you for making me wait so long to feel you like this." She breathed and the pads of his fingers pressed hard into her hip as she started to rock against him. She was better than any opium, any snow, any hit he'd ever had.

Tommy Shelby feared nothing, except in that moment he was afraid that she might wring his very soul from his body with her touch and he'd be grateful for a death like that, "I know. So take what you want, Sophie."

He had made them both wait too long and for the life of him, with him buried deep inside of her, he couldn't understand why. Why? When this was a heaven only they'd know.

Tommy let Sophie take from him gladly, helped her ride him, hands lifting her arse as she slid up and down his cock. He suffered through the incredibly agony of an orgasm just out of his reach as she ground her clit almost violently against his pubic bone as she chased her own release.

They were a mess of sweat, half-connected kisses, and dirty words sounding like prayers leaving their lips. He held her as she discovered her own body with him inside of her, chanting his name, her palm pressed against the wall above his head.

Tommy held on until she came so incredibly for him and he tried to bask in it for the briefest of seconds before he joined her, pulling out of her at the last moment to spill himself against her flushed stomach.

"Sleep. I'm here." Tommy promised her. He saw both the overwhelm and the ecstasy in her big eyes and knew it was mirrored back to hers from his. And then he wasn't sure which one of them was gone to the world first as he sunk into the comfort of sleep.

~o0o~

Tommy had slept better than he had in years. No nightmares. Not even one innocuous dream. But he had still woken up before Sophie, which gave him a few moments to savor her all for himself in a way he hadn't enjoyed a morning after in years.

Usually there were no mornings after. He had used to visit Lizzie in the afternoons and been gone by sundown. Mornings felt like something more and also stifling in their slowness. Tommy felt that always moving kept him alive, kept him ready. He never allowed himself such indulgences as mornings like this.

Although, he felt he might need to start making time for them as he watched the even rise and fall of Sophie's chest. She was streaked with the rosy glow of the dawn and Tommy sunk further into the moment with her.

And he allowed himself to start making plans.

Tommy had plans for The Shelby Company Ltd, of course. He had plans for Billy Kimber. But none of his plans had ever involved a woman beyond initiating a quick fuck. He watched Sophie roll towards him, edging into consciousness and he gently touched the charm bracelet he had given her.

Plans. And pretend.

With half of Small Heath hungover from John's wedding and likely still abed, Tommy could pretend it was just the two of them in a very different world far away from Birmingham.

"'Morning." Sophie blinked her eyes open and smiled, her head resting on his pillow.

"I thought you'd never wake up." He teased. He liked that only she made him soft.

" S'what time's it?" She fought through the last cobwebs of sleep and started to sit up. He saw her move carefully, gingerly. He knew there would be a blood stain somewhere on his sheets.

"Around seven. Arthur and Polly won't be up for ages. I'm sure John's busy with his new bride." He could feel the uncertainty in her posture and he tried his best to ease it.

What he really wanted to tell her was: If they have anything to say about why you aren't at home in bed, they can speak to me about it.

He opted for "How are you feeling?"

"Sore," She blushed, "But strangely light."

Tommy never wanted her to leave his bed, because he understood what she was feeling so deeply. It was an innate ease. A weight off of him that felt years in the making.

But he knew Sophie well enough to know she was fighting an instinct to run despite the happiness. To make herself feel safe. Tommy would fix that. He would make sure that for her safe was synonymous with his name.

He couldn't blame her holding onto the fear midst the bliss. Last night had cracked them both open to each other.

"There is enough time, Sophie." He promised her, drawing upon her words from the night before, "I told you. All morning. You won't have to leave this bed until you are good and ready to."

With a weighty exhale and a smile, she kissed him.