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Liana feigned disappointment as her hand pressed to her heart. “But they won’t havemydesserts.”
“That is true,” Aura agreed, her mouth practically salivating while thinking about how glorious Liana’s pastries always tasted. Even before arriving at the cottage, they’d only had a few servants. Their mother genuinely enjoyed cooking and cleaning, whereas Aura hadn’t inherited the gift to love either of those. For her, cooking things meant burning them to a crisp.
“I’m so relieved you were born first.” Liana sighed, combing her fingers through a few knots in Aura’s hair. “I don’t think I could survive being royalty.”
Aura rested her palm on Liana’s shoulder. “You’ll have your own shop soon.”
“I would fight you on this if I knew you didn’t love him, but because you do, I’ll gladly open the bakery,” Liana said, just as children’s laughter erupted from another room.
“What are the little ones getting into now?” Aura pushed up from the bed, knowing when her younger sisters were giggling it meant mischief. Their parents hadn’t planned on having any more children after their first set of twins and their other sister, Hana. But five years ago, a miracle happened, as their mother would say, and another set of twins had come into their lives.
“I let them bake with me. I need helpers once I open the shop, so they better get the experience now.” Liana then led Aura down the narrow hallway toward the kitchen. When they’d arrived, the cottage had already been decorated with dull gray paintings that her mother never would’ve hung in their own home. Succulents and ivy in bright pots always filled the rooms.
Saffron and Fern sat on the counter in the kitchen, covered in flour, their tiny hands molding clumpy spheres with the dough.
Aura laughed as she scooped Saffron off the counter first, then Fern.
“Look what I made!” Saffron shouted, holding up her dough as she displayed her missing front tooth, her blonde curls tangled.
“Stop always trying to get the attention. Look at mine!” Fern cried, her simple dress too large on her tiny frame.
Aura knelt before them and inspected the balls of dough. “They are equally beautiful. Now, Liana will help you get cleaned up. We have a big day ahead of us, and you both have a very important task.”
“Drop the flower petals,” Saffron said.
“In a line that isn’t too neat,” Fern added.
The door opened just as her younger sisters scampered out of the room, arguing with one another about who would drop the first petal while Liana tailed them, telling them to hush. Aura’s mother stepped over the threshold, her hand around Hana’s shoulder. Hana appeared positively rumpled, her tunic and trousers torn as if she’d tumbled a shifter, which Aura was certain she had. The middle sister was eighteen, but she’d always done what she wanted, regardless of what their mother told her, and at times, Aura was maybe even a bit envious of Hana and her boldness.
“I found your sister half naked in the woods,” her mother spat. “On your wedding day, no less. You better be glad your father is already at the palace.”
“Mama,” Hana drawled. “I was just about to get cleaned up. I’ll be ready in time for our departure—no worries about that.” As she sauntered past Aura toward her bedroom, she whispered in her ear, “I saw thepreciousprince slip into your room last night.”
“What did she say?” her mother asked with a huff.
“Nothing, Mama.” Aura rolled her eyes. “She said she’s going to help me dress for the wedding, just as you asked.”
“Sheiswonderful at accentuating beauty through hair and powders. But what am I going to do with her? Especially after you’re gone.” Aura’s mother lifted one of Liana’s cookies, her shoulders dropping when she took a large bite. As always, the sugar seemed to relax her mother a fraction.
“Let Hana be Hana. That’s all we can do. She’s not a babe any longer.”
“She didn’t need to do this on your wedding day, though.”
“The wedding isn’t until this evening and Hana is always on time for everything, regardless of what she does. It’s fine, Mama.”
“Tomorrow I’ll only have four daughters under this roof.” Tears filled her mother’s eyes.
Aura gently patted her mother’s shoulder. “Father must be happy about that. Less noise and all.”
“He won’t know what to do with himself when all our girls are gone one day.” She shook her head, taking another bite of the cookie. “Now, let’s prepare you a bath fit for a princess.”
Once the bath was ready and infused with rose and lavender oils, Aura slipped into the hot water. She scrubbed thoroughly, wanting the scents to absorb as deep as they could into her flesh, for her skin to be as soft as velvet for the wedding night.
When the warmth started to leave the water, Aura slid on her robe and padded into her room, the sounds of her mother telling the younger twins to stop playing around and to hurry echoing down the hall.
Aura shut the door behind her and took out the sheer undergarments, drawing them up her legs beneath the robe. The anticipation of feeling Pax’s skilled fingers peeling them from her body consumed her. She bit the inside of her cheek to stop from getting aroused to the point where she itched to touch herself. Her orgasm tonight would need to be a well-awaited one. It had been over a week since Pax’s fingers had stroked her clit, dipped inside her heat.
The door cracked open and Aura whirled around to find Hana, her golden hair pulled up into a high braided bun, a blue silk dress hugging her curvy form.
