Birthday Shift by Desconhecido(a)

months. When she’d heard that Lukos was in the human worlds
passing as a carpenter a part of her, the part that still was a spoiled fairy
princess, had thought it foolish that her lover would try to be a common
laborer. Then, the more she thought about it, the more she realized this might
be her chance to make her fairytale come true. Thus, the bag she held with her
other hand. He’d come far from his humble beginnings. She had wondered if he’d
even known how to work with his hands.
    Now she knew.
Heat swept through her body thinking about all the ways back in fae that he’d
demonstrated mastery with his fingers, how he coaxed her body to the heights of
passion and made her feel things that no other fae man could. She squared her
shoulders, expecting a battle.
    “What are we
going to do?” Lukos asked. He closed the door behind her, then flipped the
lock.
    The tiny snick
reinforced the fact that she was alone with him, had gone with him, and in some
ways was completely at his mercy. Her breath caught. Her nipples beaded. If she
were lucky, before the night was over, she’d end up beneath him, utterly
helpless as he did whatever he wanted to her body.
    “I can sense your
arousal, Lise. If I thought sex would fix things, I’d scoop you in my arms and
show you what I’ve done with the master suite.” He shook his head and rested
his hands on her shoulders. “But I think we’ve gone too far for that.”
    “No!” She brought
her hands up to cover his, sensing the strength in his digits that could craft
wood to show its beauty or give a woman the most pleasurable night of her life.
The bag, with its precious cargo, banged against her back. “What if I told you
I don’t feel very comfortable in Caroann anymore?”
    Lukos rested his
forehead against hers. A heavy sigh issued from his chest. “If you know how
much the sight of that gilded cage haunts me… I could never have done it. But
we had to in order to force the Quartanine. What I wouldn’t give to tell
Cheri that I’d never hurt her, that I’d sent the alchemist to her when I heard
her shop was failing, all because I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist, and I
could send Riley into her arms. It worked out well, but what if it hadn’t? What
if I’d sentenced your sister to a life with Iver? Goddess bless, Lise. Don’t
you know the hell we’ve caused?”
    She did and it
weighed on her soul as heavily as it did on his. “Funny the things we do when
we have secrets we want to keep.” She bit her lip. “I think if we went to Cheri
and explained things to her that she’d forgive us. And then, maybe, we could
forgive ourselves.” She trailed the fingers of one hand over his arm, up to his
shoulder to trace the strong line of his jaw.
    “I can’t,” Lukos
rasped. “I can’t forgive myself for what we did. Ever.”
    “You have to.” In
the months it’d taken her to hunt down Lukos, she’d done a lot of thinking,
much of it on the subject of her sister. If she and Lukos couldn’t forgive not
only themselves, but each other, then their relationship would fail.
    Lukos pressed a
soft kiss to her forehead. “It’s not that easy for me. You’re a royal and
regardless of your actions, your caste will accept you. I’m not. I rose too far
above my station and now the royals who once called me Prince will rejoice in
how far I can fall. It’s not going to be pretty. You shouldn’t have to be a
part of it.”
    Lise traced his
full, lower lip. Her chest tightened, her heart seizing with the fact that
Lukos seemed determined to break it. Closing her eyes, she traced his mouth,
his cheeks, his chin in an attempt to memorize his features. Returning to
Caroann without him would kill her. She drew a deep breath and rose onto her
tiptoes. Lise pressed her lips to his, sliding her hand around to touch the
back of his head. She spread her fingers there, feeling his short hair, once
luxuriant against her.
    Lukos groaned.
    Taking the sound
as acquiescence, she