Bancroft - Peaky Blinders Reverse Harem x Reader

Chapter 31

A/n: listen to 'daylight' by David kushner on Soundcloud on repeat while you read for the full experience. Love u guys <3 <3

Tommy's POV

Tommy presses his lips to your head. It's the most natural instinct in the world — you're lying in his arms. You're safe. He doesn't even need to think as he does it.

And he realises, it's the first time in a long, long, time that he doesn't feel terrible.

It's not a happiness, exactly. More a sense of relief. He's still working. In just over an hour's time, he'll need to intimidate or kill half a dozen men into handing over the horses. So he can't drop his mental barriers and focus on you entirely. Not nearly as much as he wants to.

But you're here. You're real, soft against his skin. And the strange flaring in his chest that he's felt since working out that you've been with Arthur and then Arthur and John, is suddenly calm.

He doesn't care. He wants you happy and he wants you free — barring when your safety's at risk, of course. That comes first.

Because you're in more danger than you realise.

But he pushes the thought from his head. You may have needed his brothers, but you're here with him now. And he's sure they never held you like this, never breathed in the way your hair smells like coconut and vanilla and is so soft beneath his fingers. They never ran their fingers along the length of your spine, before coming to hold you in the small of your back, palms spreading wide. His lungs swell and his eyes are open, staring at the wall of the tent while you're tucked into his neck and chest.

He'd never let anything hurt you. He can't even bear the thought.

It's as though his fate is sealed for him in this moment. There's no turning back now. It doesn't matter that you haven't fucked. It doesn't matter that you haven't even kissed. He's aware that this is something so transcendental it goes beyond the way he'd been left breathless — and slightly uncomfortable below the belt — when you undressed at the lake.

It's as though his mother came down from the stars themselves as he showed them to you. Leaned in and told him, this is the one. Don't fuck it up.

He exhales, savouring the feeling of you against him. He's going to have to tell you. About the full contents of the Will. He's going to have to show you everything he's been protecting you from, because he knows how angry you'd be if he continued to lie.

Not that he has a problem lying — not if it's what he has to do. What keeps you safe.

But that's just it. There are bigger threats out there than you know about. And after tonight, he knows nobody will be able to touch you.

Not for as long as he breathes.