forbidden { michael gray } ON TEMPORARY HOLD

s i x

Sunlight filtered into Michael's small bedroom and sprinkled light across the bed him and Talya were sprawled across. Their bodies were entangled in each other's and the sheets as they both peacefully slept. It wasn't until the sunlight reached Talya's eyes she finally woke up.

With a quick glance around her, she remembered what had happened last night after they got shot at. One thing had led to another and then she had sex with Michael. To her relief, not a single ounce of regret harboured in her mind. In fact, she felt happier than ever. She lifted her hand to Michael's stomach and absent-mindedly traced shapes onto the bare skin as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

Before long the pair of them both woke up and began to kiss, their hearts filled with contentment. They probably could have gone on for hours if Talya hadn't glanced at the clock on his wall out of the corner of her eye. "Shit."

"What's wrong?" Michael muttered into the side of her mouth, slightly annoyed to have stopped kissing.

"It's almost 7 am, I need to get home before they notice I'm gone."

Michael sighed. "Alright, I'll walk you to the end of Small Heath."

-

They walked in silence through the frost-bitten streets with their hands intertwined and their shoulder's pressing against each other, both warm with placation. Once they reached the unmarked border of Small Heath and Greet, Talya wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him as he did the same to her shoulders. "Will you be alright with your parents?"

"Yeah," she said as she looked up at him. "I'll tell them I slept at a friends."

He nodded and gently kissed her lips. "Be safe."

"And you."

For another few moments, they kissed before Talya pulled away and left him as she thought about how cold she was without her stockings after Michael had literally ripped them off her last night.

Before long Talya got home, and luckily for her there was no sign of her parents. She crept up the stairs, wincing as they creaked, and had almost made it to her room when she heard someone clearing their throat behind her. "Where have you been?"

It was Alexei. She swallowed before saying as convincingly as she could, "Just at a friend's!"

"Oh?" Her brother said as he walked across the landing until he was right in front of Talya with a ferocious glint in his eyes. "Open the door to your room now."

She did as she was told and opened the door for the both of them. He quickly shoved her out of the way once they were inside and slammed the door shut. "Which friend?"

"Why do you care-"

"I said, which friend?" He demanded as he stormed over to her. "Tell me. Now!"

Talya swallowed dryly. "Maggie, from Sparkbrook."

"Oh, 'Maggie, from Sparkbrook'?" He frowned, as though deep in thought. "Now, that is strange, isn't it!"

"It is?" She asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Alexei lowered his mouth so it was adjacent to her ear. "Yes, because Andrey saw you in Small Heath, sat with the Peaky accountant in the restraunt he shot up."

Fear turned Talya to ice. She froze; she didn't even move her face to meet Alexei's gaze as he sneered down at her.

"Well, was it you? Or was there a Talya look-a-like?"

"It wasn't me." She scoffed. "I told you, I was with Maggie!"

Alexei's face was unflinching and Talya knew the only way she could get out of this was by turning it around on him.