It ended with how he wanted to protect this holy being he thought was her. How he wanted no harm to ever come to her. No darkness to ever touch her heart. No pain to creep into her veins. And especially no tears to wet her eyes as she mourned the loss of her freedom. Because in the end, she wasn't the only one losing someone. He was losing her too.

Lily looked up at him with eyes glazed with a fresh set of painful emotions. The sight sent a pang of anguish through his chest. He had a feeling it would be too much. Maybe he shouldn't have written it at all. Maybe he should have avoided her and married Shanna and lived his life.

However, in the prince's heart he knew that not to be true. He had to confess his feelings or they would fester inside of him, growing into blackened weeds of resentment. It may have been selfish and unkind to put her through this turmoil, but in the end he just wanted her to know that she was loved.

"Jug..." She mumbled, but before she could say anything else, the prince dipped down to place his lips upon hers. She imagined her first kiss would be Sweet Pea and no his brother. Panic flooded her mind as she tried to think of how people kissed in the movies she had seen.

It was soft, gentle, and slow. Jughead didn't press her any further for the first few moments. He pulled away before kissing her again, unable to stop himself as the feeling of her lips against his gave him a rush that he'd never felt before.

Lily opened her mouth first, innocently trying to force air into her lungs but Jughead took it as an invitation. He prodded her lips with his tongue, not daring to venture inside of her mouth just yet. He could feel her hesitation before the tip of her tongue met his.

Their muscles entwined together, Jughead put a hand to the back of her head to steady her as one of her hands reached up to caress the side of his face. Lily couldn't stop the small moan that came from her mouth at the feeling of light exploding inside of her mind. It was just as every cheesy romance novel she had secretly read described it.

After a few minutes the two finally separated for air, looking at one another with eyes hooded with lust. No words were said as they breathed deeply. Lily's hand slid down his neck to rest on his shoulder. "We can't do this." She finally said, trying to make sense of her emotions. "It's not right."

"What is ever right about love?" Jughead asked eloquently, his eyes shining down on hers. Before he could say anything else she was kissing him again.

|\/\/|

Shanna finished out shoveling the last of the droppings from Hades' stall. The Joneses were to be staying at the castle until the wedding preparations had been finalized. Though she had managed to ignore Sweet Pea since their midday race the day before, she had a feeling she'd run into him here where she was serving her sentence.

Of course she could have just batted her eyelashes at Dilton and had him do it, since it was his job, but she decided to prove to the dark prince that she could do a bit of manual labor. She wiped the sweat off of her forehead before glancing at the few blisters starting to form on her soft fingers.

"Oh? You're actually doing it?" Prince Sweet Pea asked, leaning against the frame of the door to the stall. "Here I thought you'd make your slave do it."

"He's not my slave." Shanna hissed, turning to meet his gaze. She had dirt smeared across her face now from wiping it with the back of her hand. "And by the way, I touched your horse."

"I told you not to touch him!" Sweet Pea snapped at her angrily, quickly finding Hades in the stall next to Persephone. The two horses were grooming one another, making soft noises of affection. A disgusted look crossed his face at the two horses. "You put them beside each other?!"

My favorite Imagines ❤️ RiverdaleUnde poveștirile trăiesc. Descoperă acum