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The first time he sleep with Lizzie is not the first time he sleep with someone since he came back from the war. No, if he remember right he slept with at least 6 women probably more.
He doesn’t remember their face or their name. He think he never slept more than one times with any of them, or maybe he did. Their faces mix together in his mind making it impossible for him to be sure. He sleep with this women because his body need sex not because he want them.
He come back from the war a dead man. He doesn’t feel or want anything anymore except power. Fucking is something his body need.
He doesn’t care about this women. He use them for his pleasure. Sleeping with them is a transaction. He tell them what he want, they tell him a price and they fuck. It’s simple. He never hurt them, but he takes from them what he want and doesn’t give them anything back in return, except money. He doesn’t even makes them come, if they do it’s because they took care of it themselves. They are a mean to an end. He could use his hands but he has do admit he prefer the feeling of a cunt around him.
With Lizzie it’s different. He sleep with her because he want her.
One night, he is going to the pub with his men to celebrate and he hear a woman laughing. He stop walking and search for the person emitting this sound. His eyes finally located her.
She is beautiful. She stand proud and tall on the curb. She is talking with another woman. They are standing 10 feet apart from each other so they speak loudly to be heard from the other. He know what they are doing. The woman whose laugh has been so pure that it made him forget where he is going, is whoring herself out. She has a smile illuminating her face, hypnotising him.
When the other men realise he had stop following them, they call his name to catch his attention. He come out of his contemplation and resumes his journey to the pub. The men don’t know why he stop but they all can see that when he joined them again he looks disturb. They don’t bother asking him what happen because they know he will not tell them.
Thomas pass the evening trying not to think about the woman. He fail. He leave the pub three hours later with the intention to sleep with her. When he arrive where he saw her, she is gone. Another man already came for her. He goes home alone.
He continue his life like nothing happen, but every time he pass by the street where he saw her, he look for her. She is never there and he ignore the disappointment running trough him.
He see her again one night. He is walking with Jeremiah and she is there walking quickly toward them. She is checking her purse. When she pass by them she shoves them by accident.
« Sorry. » She turn to look at them. « I am late and I wasn’t looking. »
Now, a normal person would be scare after shoving two members of the Peaky blinders. Especially when one of them is the chef of the organisation but not her. Here she is, smiling at them innocently. He glare at her.
When she see how he is looking at her, she makes herself stand taller and she return his glare but her smile never leaves her face. She is mocking him.
Their connection is broken when Jeremiah answer her apology. « It’s ok Lizzie. You Have a nice night. »
« You too gentlemen. » She laugh and with that she is on her way. She star running and soon she disappear.
Like the first time, he is left intrigue by her. « You know her? » he ask Jeremiah.
His friend look at him like he doesn’t understand what Thomas is asking. « it’s Lizzie. » Jeremiah say like it’s an evidence. « You don’t remember her? Lizzie stark » he precise.
He remember the Stark, they had been a constant sight in Small Heat. Two girls and their father. Rumour was that the man had killed his wife in a fit of rage. Like Arthur Sr, the Stark’s father was a violent man.
Thomas finally realise who she is « The little Stark girl? » The younger one had been call Elizabeth. Memories comes back of a girl running in the street with a black eye and a smile on her face, laughing. He believe she use to have a crush on him.
« Not little anymore. » say Jeremiah affectionately. « It’s to bad what happened to her? » his face become somber.
Curiosity pushes him to ask « What happened? »
« From what I know their father stay here when the war broke but he was killed in a fight. Lizzie was left with nothing and no one to take care of her. The oldest tried to help but she was already married with children and her husband didn’t want to feed another mouth. Same thing happened with her aunt. She decided to start working on the street. Life was not easy on her, unfortunately. » Jeremiah say sadly. « I shouldn’t say that. If she heard how I talked about her, she would spit in my face. Never like being pitied this one. »
Thomas know that. He had done it one time.
————————————————————————————————————————————
Thomas, Polly and Ada are coming back from the market when his sister ask « What happened to her ? »
« Stop pointing your finger to show someone. It’s not polite.» Say their aunt, grabbing her arm to make her stop.
Both Thomas and his aunt turn to look at who Ada was pointing. The youngest Stark girl walk on the other side of the street. Her cheek is cut open and a big bruise is forming, her eye is swollen shut, her lip is open and her right arms is also bruise. It’s only what he can see, he is sure that the extent of her injuries has to be worse. It’s the first time Thomas see her in a states like that. The girl is always bruise but never to this extent. Like always she is wearing a smile. When she walks you can see she is hurting because her smirk waver a little but he never completely leave her face. People are staring at her but she act like she doesn’t care about the stares.
When Thomas turns his attention back to his family, his aunt has already given an answer to Ada. All he hear is the end of her phrase « …..poor girl. »
Before they go back on their ways Thomas look one last time in the direction of the girl. What he see make him laugh. She is using the fact that people are distracted by her injuries to steal from them.
Later in the day, he see the Stark girl again sitting on the curb and she look defeated. She is not smiling or laughing something he never saw before. It’s why he decide to talk to her « Are you alright? »
She look at him surprise and look around her to be sure that he is talking to her before answering « Yeah. » She is lying.
« You know, you are not good at lying. What happen?» He point to her face to indicate what he is talking about.
Her hand goes to her face and she flinch when she touch her right cheek. « My father lost a bet. I look to much like my mother, he took me for her. » she said without emotions.
« Did you run away? » He hope not, she was to young to live on the street.
« No, I am waiting for him to fall asleep before going back. But I am hungry and knowing him I will have to wait a long time. »
« Don’t you have money to buy something to eat? I saw you today stealing from people. »
If it’s possible she become more somber than before. « No, I don’t have money. My father found me earlier and he took everything. »
« He is an asshole. » she look at him like he is stupid. If look could talk, hers would say sarcastically « Thank captain obvious. Like I didn’t know that already. ». She is making him uncomfortable now so he decide to finish this conversation. « Well, you shouldn’t stay here. It’s going to be dark soon and it’s not safe. I will advise you to stay closer from your house. Like that if something dangerous start happening you can run home. »
« Yeah but if he see me waiting outside he will force me to go inside. So I am going to stay here. »
« Do what you want. » He leaves then. After all, she is not his responsibility.
He don’t know why he does it but after he makes some steps he decide to drop money from his pocket.
« Tommy! Wait!» She appears before him breathless from running to catch him. « You let this fall. »She open her hand to show him the money.
« It’s not mine. »
« It is. I saw it fall from your pocket. » Realisation appear on her face. « Wait. Did you do it on purpose? »
« I don’t know what you are talking about. I say it’s not mine. » he tries to leave.
She stop him « You did. You tried giving me money. » she is angry now. « Well, you are stupid. I don’t need your pity. I don’t need anyone! Do you understand? »
« I do. » and he did because he was like her. What he had done was an insult to people like them. They stare at each other. « Are you going to give me my money back, then? »
« No, i am teaching you a lesson. » a smile is beginning to appear on her face.
« What lesson? » he ask curious. What lesson could a girl younger than him teach him?
« Don’t be stupid, Stupid. » she burst out laughing and run back to where she was sitting earlier.
Thomas leave smirking, happy that she was back to her old self.
————————————————————————————————————————————
« You said she work on the street but I never saw her? » he has, one time but Jeremiah didn’t know that.
« Yeah, sometimes she work as a cocktail waitress. It’s was she is doing at the moment. It’s the same thing but she find her clients in a club instead of the street. »
It explains why he had not seen her again.
Next time he see her she is back on the street. Their is no one around so he talk to her.
« Working, Elizabeth? »
He startle her, she hadn’t see him coming. « Fuck! You scared me. » she ogles him but stop when she see he caught her doing it, she blush. « Nobody call me Elizabeth anymore, you know? » she tries to keep her composure by smirking.
« Why that? » He light a cigarette.
« Never liked being called Elizabeth. My father use to call me that. Since he died, I go by Lizzie. It look like the message didn’t reach you. »
« Yeah, it probably got lost between here and France. » he says smirking. He regrets saying that the moment the words leave his mouth. He doesn’t know what to say to keep the conversation going.
She save him by making small talk. « How are you Tommy? »
« Seen better days and you? »
« Same. »
« Do you want one? » he ask offering her a cigarette.
« Yes. Thanks. » She takes the offering. « You know I am surprise you remember who i am. Last time it didn’t look you did. Can you? » she makes the gesture for a lighter.
« Oh yeah. » he takes the object from his pockets and gives her. He watch, as she light the cigarette. She bring the tubes to her lips, close them around it. Her mouth his painted red and when she open it to let the smoke out he can’t help but notice the mark left ont the end by her lipstick. He gets hard. Would she looks the same sucking his cock? He clear his throat. « To be honest, I didn’t recognise you. Jeremiah told me who you were. »
« I am hurt. » she says playfully bringing her right hand to her heart. « Not trying to be rude, it’s nice to see you but I am indeed working and if I talk to you, nobody would come see me. You understand, right? »
« I understand. » he is going to leave but change his mind. « How much? » He want her maybe if he has her, she will leave the back of his mind.
She had stop paying him attention preferring to look for potential client even if the street was still empty. She is surprise, had she heard correctly. « What?! » she is shocked by how loud her voices is.
« I said, how much?» he is enjoying her reaction.
« For what? » has she miss something he said.
« For you. » He open his coat and takes money out of the pocket inside. « Is this enough? » She takes the bills and count how much there is. He doesn’t know how much he gives her but by the look on her face it’s too much. She doesn’t tell him that however.
« it’s enough. Just to makes sure, you want to have sex, you are not paying me to talk? »
« I am paying to have sex with you. If you agree. »
« Good because had it been the latter, I would have…. »
« Called me stupid and run away laughing. » he ask smirking.
She blush again « Well yes, I would have call you stupid. » she looks guilty. « I can’t believe you remember that. »
« I can’t believe you called me stupid, while I was trying to be nice and also that you stole from me. »
« Eh! I didn’t steal from you. You gave me the money who wasn’t yours. » she said mocking him.
They laugh and stares at each other.
Lizzie break the silence. « You know if we are going to do this. » She show him the money. « We should probably go somewhere. »
« Do you have somewhere in mind? »
« It depends on you. We can go to a hotel, my lodging, yours… »
« How far is your place? »
« Not far. Mine then? »
« Yeah. »
« Follow me. » She start walking to her place.
She didn’t lie, she lives close by. When they arrive at her place, he is surprise by how nice it looks. Sure, it’s small but it’s clean and the space is use efficiently. There is a little kitchen, a table with two chairs, a bed and an armchair. There is even a place that has been set up to look like a bathroom even if it’s rudimentary.
« It was not there before. I had to set it up myself. » she says proudly talking about the thing you could barely call a bathroom.
« You did a Good job. »
« Thanks. » she turns her backs on him « Do you want something to drink? I have whisky, gin, water and coffee. Choose your poison. »
« Whisky is good. » He doesn’t know what to do. If it was one of the other women there will be less talking and more fucking. He watch her while she pours him a drink « Can I ask you a question? »
« If you must. »
« You don’t have to answer me, but Jeremiah says you were currently working has a cocktail waitress, what happened ? »
« You can sit you know. » she point him to the armchair. He does as he is told but before, he discard his coat . She give him his drink and seat on her bed. She takes a sip from her drink. « I use to work at the club more often but now It’s only when money is tight. I don’t really like working there, the owner is an asshole and the clients can ask weird things. I prefer to be my own boss. But, the clients are rich and they pay good money so when it’s tight money wise I go there and I get to see a doctor, who make sure I am not sick. » There is also the drugs and alcool, that permit her to forget the things she does to live.
« You don’t have enough money? »
« Now, I do. Two of my regular stop coming and I don’t know why but the occasional client has been rare lately. » She doesn’t want to talk more so she stand up and come closer. « Should we begin? » She is hovering over him. It’s the first time he is going to sleep with a woman taller than him. He find it a little weird but it doesn’t stop him from wanting her.
He is on edge since they entered the flat. His skin is crawling with desire.
She stand before him in a dress and take his head in her hand to make him look at her in the eyes. « What do you want me to do? »
Good question, he didn’t really think about that. He want to see her. « Take of you dress. »
She steps back, takes the end of her dress in her hands and makes it goes over her head. She then takes her panties off. He can finally admire her in all her glory. He is hard. He looks at her from bottom to top. She is breathtaking. She has great legs. her stomach is flat witch is no surprise since she is skinny, her tits are small but he doesn’t care and her nipples are much darker than the rest of her skin.
He is stop from his contemplation by her shy laugh. He look at her face. She looks embarrassed, it’s not easy to stand naked before someone and wait for him to finish ogling you. He smile at her to try and ease her mind. His eyes fall to her mouth next and a flash of her lips around him comes to mind. « On your knee. »
He spread his legs for her to takes place. She does as she is ask. He doesn’t have to tell her what he want, she understand. She open his trouser and he help her to takes them off. They do the same things for his underpants.
She take him in her hands. Her touch makes him warm. It’s been a long times since he felt any warm. Nowadays, he is always cold like a dead body. She alternate between slow and quick . Finally, she gives him a playful smile and takes him in her mouth. It’s too much, too much pleasure, too much desire, too much feeling. He grip the armchair and close his eyes, he tries not to come to soon. He doesn’t want this to end. She lick and suck, play with his ball but the thing he prefer is when she scrape him with her teeth playfully. At one moment he hear and feel her moan around him. He open his eyes and notice that she is pleasuring herself with her right hand. The vibration on his shaft is a nice plus but he want to be the one giving her pleasure. « No. » She look at him questioningly « don’t touch yourself. » she whines in protest but do as she is told. She put her hand on his thigh. He enjoy her mouth a little longer, he wait for his breathing to become jerky sign that he will cum soon. « Stop. »
He leave her mouth with a pop. Her lips are swollen, her lipstick is almost completely gone, spread on his prick and her eyes are watery. He like seeing her like that. « Bed. All four. » He as not regained all his senses, making him not capable of forming a sentence but she understand his order. She position herself on the bed, offerings him her behind.
His legs are a little shaky so he takes more times to join her. He stand behind her, check if she is ready by passing a finger along her slit. She is wet from having play with herself earlier and he hopes because she want this as much as him. He poses his hands on her hips and feel her shiver. She moan when he enter her slowly. He thrust into her and she meet him. It’s not long before their movements accelerate, their moans becomes louder. When he see her bring back one arm between her legs, he decide to pass one arm around her and raise her back to his torso. Her head fall on his shoulder and he feel her breathing on his ear. She put her right hand on his neck. With his left hand he grip her right tit, to play with it. He slowly let his other hand slides up to her vulva and quickly start massaging her clitoris. Soon he feel her contract around him, she comes silently. He follow her and stop them from falling face first on the bed by supporting their upper bodies with his right arm.
They burst out laughing. Her laugh is loud, his is more shy. When he can finally regained control, he pulled out and lay down on the bed and close his eyes. He hear her stand, walk, then water flow and again walk. He open his eyes and look at her as she wash him off her. He doesn’t want her to do that but it’s the better thing to do. He should have pull out they both know it but he was feeling to much to think correctly.
After she finish she goes back to the cash he gave her earlier and give him back the extra.
« Why? » he feel obligated to ask.
« I don’t steal from my client even if some of them do. It breaks the trust and how would I work if my client learn some day that I stole them. » She put her clothes on.
« Do you like doing that? »
« Being a whore you mean? » she goes to pours them another drink.
« Yeah. » He takes the drink she offer him. She goes sit on the armchair leaving him the bed .
« No. I had two choices when the war began. The first to have a normal job where the pay will have permitted me to survive or I could become a whore and live. You understand the difference? »
Did he understand? Of course he did. She had a poor education like him. She could have been a proper woman but poor. He had done the same choice when he came back from the war. He had choose not to be a factory worker because he deserve better than a low paying job. He deserve more money than scrap and she did to. « I think I do. Doesn’t it bother you how people view you, now? »
« People always judged me. Before it was because I was my father’s daughter. Now it’s because I do a job that they thinks makes me less than them. They can all go fuck themself, I don’t care. Everybody is a whore anyway, we just sell different part of ourself. »
He doesn’t say anything back to her, thinking about the word she just say. He suppose she is right. Factory worker also sold their bodies the only difference was that they stayed clothes but when they will be old their body will be broken. For soldier it was their mind and on and on.
His silence make her defensive « Does it bother you, that I am a whore? Do you thing you are better than me? »
He quickly respond « No. I respect what you do and why you do it. »
« Good, none of my client can judge me. Because for all I am a whore they are the men who pay a whore and if they thing what i do is so bad they shouldn’t come to me. They are not better than me. You are not better than me. » she has tears in her eyes, ready to come out.
Their is a story behind her words. A story of past Johns who came to see her and try to make her feel bad after using her. But, she doesn’t want to share and he doesn’t want to hear. So, he doesn’t ask because asking is caring and it’s not how a relationship between a whore and her client work. Their interaction tonight is already unusual, but this is a step to far.
He changed the subject, try to make their interaction becomes more lighthearted. He thing he succeed because he see her relax little by little and soon they are again laughing, drinking and sharing cigarette.
He doesn’t spent the night, but he stays more than any other Johns. He leaves and the cold return. It doesn’t bother him a lot because he is use to it by now but he can’t help but crave the warm she had procure him.
He goes back after that. Becomes one of her regular. It’s never like the first time. Now, he pull out and their conversations isn’t so personal anymore. But she still bring something more than the other whores. She feels nice.
The are alike, they both come from the same background but something differentiate them. She is pure and he is not. Because, even if people thing that she is dirty by the mans she sleep with, she is not. She is innocent. She never hurt anybody. Not the man who hurt her, not the woman who spit at her when she walk to close and not the children who call her means name and laugh because they heard their parent talk badly of her. Despite all of this she stay true to who she is and she is a nice person. Unlike himself she doesn’t let the thing she do define her.
He doesn’t let himself fall for her but soon he begin to think of her as his.