Morgana urged the stocky mustang onwards, and within seconds they were neck and neck with the wizard and his tan stallion.
Lucius glanced across at her, his usually cool grey eyes alight with devilment, and she grinned back at him wickedly as they thundered across the open grassland. She was so young, and beautiful, and free, and suddenly Lucius envied her. He'd never been able to act that way, not even as a small child, he'd been permitted to do nothing that may have disgraced the name of Malfoy. Everything he had done in the past, everything he did now, was calculated, shrewd, designed to advance his own position in society, regardless of the consequences to anyone else. He considered every potential risk before he did anything.
Morgana didn't though. She was brilliant, her mind was constantly active, but she rarely thought ahead to what might happen because of her actions. Maybe it was merely her youth, but Lucius doubted it, more likely it was the fact that she'd never had to think about what she said or did, not really. Nothing had ever depended on her staying silent or hidden.
He watched her as her thighs gripped tight to the mare's painted abdomen, and then with pure abandon, she let go of the reins and threw her arms straight out to the sides. Her head fell back, her black curls flying loose in the wind that rushed past them. The mustang seemed to sense her rider's lack of inhibition, and her legs began to move faster, leaving Lucius's stallion trailing in her wake, and his owner with an ache in his loins.
As Morgana raced across the grassland, it felt like she was taunting him, always just out of his grasp. Lucius forced the quivering stallion on, chasing her down, determined that today would be the day he reached her. He knew when he did, there would be no protests. It wasn't possible to kidnap the willing, after all. She was his secret, the one thing he hadn't stopped to consider the consequences of. Had he have done so, he may have realised just how dangerous she would come to be to him.
When Morgana cantered to a halt, her cheeks rosy, her breathing unsteady, she turned to look at him, and her breath caught in her throat. She knew then that she was in love with him, and she knew too that it would be her downfall. He saw that in her eyes as he reined in the stallion beside her mustang, and yet he still pulled her from the horse and sank to the ground with her in his arms.
She surrendered thankfully, knowing that she had played her game for long enough. Every meeting, every moment spent together up to now had been their courtship, their foreplay, and there was no finesse in what happened between them in the middle of that open plain, no tender words or gentle caresses. It was so raw, it was almost primal. It was as though their very survival depended on them satisfying their desire for one another.
Lucius caught her mouth hungrily with his own, and she pulled him down onto her, her fingers already threading through his long, luxurious blond hair. Their movements were deft and urgent, and within seconds they became one, writhing around desperately in the prickling grasses. Lucius rolled onto his back, pushing her up so he could watch her head roll back each time she sank down onto him, and then she found a new strength, pulling him back onto her so he reared over her once again, and he called out as he buried himself deep inside her, before his trembling arms gave way and he collapsed down onto her panting form.
Morgana held him tight, her fingers softly stroking his hair, wondering why it had taken them so long to get to this point. She'd desired him, wanted him, for so long, but she had never been completely sure that he'd felt the same way. She had feared him pushing her away, and so she had not stepped forward.
Eventually, Lucius stirred, raising his head off her chest and looking intently into her black eyes. He gazed at her for a long, long moment before he pushed himself off her, and laid on his back, pulling her gently into the crook of his arm.
How long they laid there, talking about what the future held and where they should go from here, neither of them knew, but it was almost sundown when Lucius kissed Morgana farewell at the covered wooden bridge that led into the back entrance of the castle, and he watched her go sadly, suddenly wishing they could have stayed on those open grasslands forever.