"I am perfectly capable of collecting ingredients myself, Salazar," Rowena huffs, quickening her pace.

With a grin, he follows behind her, keeping up easily. "Oh, I never doubted your capability, love," he calls as they venture deeper into the forest. "However, it isn't proper for a gentleman to let a lady walk alone."

She turns, her dark eyes swimming with amusement. Her lips quirk as though she wants to smile. "I don't recall anyone calling you proper, let alone a gentleman," she teases.

He laughs, stepping closer, bending down to pluck a toadstool from the earth. "Perhaps the word gentleman would be a bit of a stretch."

"Stretch?" she laughs. "Honestly, Salazar. You're hardly the type of man anyone needs to be alone in the forest with."

His lips pull into a smirk as he drops the toadstools into her basket. Need. Such an interesting word choice, he thinks.

"Ah, but there is a fine difference between need and want, Rowena," he says, and the atmosphere changes. He drops the pretense, the joking. His grey eyes focus on her, trailing over her body. "Am I the type of man you would want to be alone with in a forest?"

Pink stains her cheeks. She looks pointedly away, busying herself with a cluster of ordinary leaves, as though something magical has somehow gotten mixed in with them.

"We are far from prying eyes, dear Rowena. Anything you say is between us and the trees."

Still, she doesn't look up. Salazar almost laughs. She should know that she isn't fooling him with her stalling. As clever as her mind is, he knows that it doesn't take her that long to identify a plant.

"I've seen the way you look at me when you don't think I'm watching," he continues, drawing closer. "You needn't continue this charade. There is no shame in desire."

"And there is no logic in it," she says at last, abandoning the leaves. "We have vastly different ideals. Our ways clash. What you're implying-"

"Am I implying it? I thought I stated it outright," he laughs, relishing the way her cheeks darken to scarlet.

"Salazar, I-"

She stops abruptly, scowling. Rowena moves quickly, picking berries from a vine, keeping her back to him. Salazar shakes his head, grinning to himself. He wonders why she has to be so stubborn. Things would be so much easier if she would abandon her silly logic, stop thinking, and trust him.

He moves closer, brushing his fingers through her hair. She shivers in spite of the mild autumn day. "There is nothing to be ashamed of," he says. "I watch you, too."

She turns, their faces just inches apart. "I want you," she admits. "But it is not a wise choice."

His fingers tangle lightly in her hair, and he pulls her closer, pressing his lips firmly to hers. Salazar grins against her mouth. Desire will always trump logic in the end.

The basket falls away, spilling ingredients across the forest floor. Neither notice it until much later when they return to the castle empty-handed.