An Unexpected Return by Jessica E. Subject

 
     
    Chapter One
     
     
    Benignus eyed him, as if confident he would change his mind. “Aristides, are you certain you want to go through with this?”
    Grinning at his fair-haired friend, Aristides had no doubt. He’d made his decision long ago. “Yes, go in there and enjoy the woman you have craved for more than two star cycles. I have no use for her.”
    “And when the king comes in?” Benignus scanned the tapestry-rich corridors of the castle’s west wing. “I know he’s going to send me to Claustrum.”
    “He’s not going to send you to the prison colony.” No one had been sent there from Tyto, ever. The planet was simply used as an idle threat to misbehaving children. Aristides placed his hands on his friend’s shoulders. “I give you permission to deflower my betrothed. She will be yours, as it should have always been. Just be sure she is on top when we come into the room.”
    He slid open the door to his grand suite, a place he would not return to any time soon, not before experiencing what the universe had to offer. “She waits for you. Now, go in there and take her.”
    His friend and gentleman of the bedchamber patted him on the back. “Thank you, Aris, and star’s speed.”
    After shoving Benignus through the door, Aristides waited in the hollow silence—usual for this part of the castle—for some indication his plan had worked before leaving to search for his father. Through the darkness engulfing his room, he couldn’t see a thing, but the sounds of wet lips in action caught his attention.
    His cock stirred. Almost there .
    Rubbing his hands down his arms, he tried to escape the chill common to the kingdom. The sun didn’t shine underground and fires only burned in the kitchen and the north wing, where his parents slept.
    “Oh, Aristides, I’m so glad you decided to deflower me before our wedding night. Take me this instant.”
    Don’t fail me now, Ben .
    “No, Madelia. It’s me, Ben. Don’t worry. No one will know.”
    “Oh, even better. Will Aris be joining us?”
    A threesome ? Oh, gods . Could he get any harder? He and Ben often discussed sex, what their first time would be like, and whom they wanted to lose their virginity to. Sure, they’d had their rods sucked by the mouths of many fair maidens, touched the girls in their most intimate places, everything but the final penetration. They’d each been told to save themselves for their one true love, the woman they wanted to marry. Oh, he’d had plenty of offers, but sure as Terrans hated Otarians, the woman would babble about having her cherry popped by the prince, and he’d find himself chained to a female he’d only used to get off.
    Ben, though, had always been fond of Madelia. Yet she had never shown any interest in him before tonight. And once she’d been betrothed to Aris, she’d become a constant thorn in his side. He refused to betray his best friend.
    He’d plotted this night ever since his wedding date had been set, for no matter how hard he tried, he could never care for Madelia. Watching his parents pretending to love each other over the years had been enough for him. No way in Claustrum did he want the same thing for himself. And then, he’d heard rumors of how they spent their holidays on the planet Elatia, in the Belverian system, receiving sexual pleasure from the revered Adamos. That was where he planned to travel. He wanted to experience every sensation before he settled down with anyone, if, of course, he found someone he could love.
    No one on Tyto appealed to him. They were all too needy, not willing to get their hands dirty with work until forced to upon their twentieth birthdays. Then they became bitter with him because of his father’s decree, and invariably left him to search for an older man wanting to make a family. He could care less what they did with their lives. Once his marriage was called off, he planned to sneak away from Tyto and get busy living.
    A whimper broke the silence. “Oh,