“Well, just judging by the way he looks at you, I think there’s a whole lot more to the way Zach feels than you give him credit for.”

Turning my head to look back at Lisa, I ask, “What do you mean?”

She merely nods toward the shore’s edge, and I turn to see Zach walking out of the water toward us.

Rather, toward me. Raking his eyes over my body, he gives me a penetrating smile. His eyes are warm and hungry as he takes a hand and runs it through his wet hair. God, I could just perish right now from how beautiful he is.

Zach stares at me the entire time he walks our way, and Lisa mutters, “Geez… you two are going to need to get a room just from that look.”

I snicker to myself and watch Zach reach into the cooler to pull out a beer.

“Have fun in the ocean?” I ask.

“I did, but it would be more fun if you came out there with me,” he says with a licentious grin.

“No way. I already explained to you I don’t go in water where I can’t see my feet. You do understand there are sharks out there, right?”

Zach laughs and flops down on the chair next to mine, kicking his long legs out and resting his beer on his taut stomach, which is dotted with sparkling drops of sea-salted water.

“Mommy,” Colleen screams from the water’s edge. “Come look… sand crabs.”

Lisa gives a disgusted look and makes a dramatic shudder. “Ew… I hate those things, but the kids love catching them.”

Standing from the chair, she leans down and punches the end of her beer bottle down in the sand to hold it upright. “A mother’s duty is never done.”

Zach and I watch her walk to where Adam and the children are squatted down near the tide line, pushing their fingers through the wet sand and looking at the crabs.

“Have I told you how hot you look in that bikini?” Zach asks me, and I turn my head to look at him. His eyes drift down to my br**sts, and he licks his lips.

I bring a finger up and trace the edge of the material that sits on the inner swell of my breast. “What? This old thing?”

Zach’s blue eyes darken to the color of denim, and his voice is rough when he says, “Let’s go back to the cottage.”

I give him a sweet smile. “No way. We’re hanging on the beach today with my sister and her family. No time for sex.”

His look is sinister when he leans over toward me and runs a finger down my leg. “I’ll make you pay for that later.”

Grabbing his finger, I pull it up to my mouth and bite the tip of it. His breath rushes out in a hiss, so I lick the end and he gives a soft moan. “Maybe I’ll make you pay instead.”

Zach jerks away from me and leans over the side of the chair. Grabbing a towel from one of the three large bags we packed with various supplies, he tosses it over his lap and grumbles, “Christ… you gave me a f**king hard-on, and I can’t do a thing about it.”

Leaning over in my chair, I stroke my hand down his arm. “Poor baby. Tell you what… I’ll give you a stupendous b**w j*b when we go in later and take a shower. How does that sound?”

Zach groans again and leans his head back in the chair, squeezing his eyes shut. “You’re killing me, Moira. Absolutely killing me.”

“Why is she killing you?” I hear and look up to see Adam strolling up. He reaches into the cooler and grabs a beer, easily popping the top and taking a huge chug. Flopping down in Lisa’s abandoned lounge chair, he places his feet to the side in the sand.

“Abandoned the sand crab hunt?” I ask, avoiding his question, which would have only been satisfied with the embarrassing answer that I gave Zach an erection.

Adam shudders the same way Lisa did, except his seems more genuine. “I hate those little f**kers. They’re like little spiders with shells.”

Laughing, I tease, “So you leave it up to the woman to handle those things?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” he says with a wry grin. “I have no problem with the woman doing those things. I even make her kill the spiders we find in the house, which I’m betting makes me seem like a lame-ass to Zach.”

Zach laughs in good nature. “Nah, man. Spiders give me the willies too.”

“Yeah,” Adam agrees as he waves his beer bottle around. “But you can be all manly and say that. You freakin’ hunt monstrous anacondas and battle alligators. You’re allowed to be afraid of spiders. I don’t have that type of street cred.”

We all three laugh in unison as we watch Lisa comb for crabs with the kids.

“So, what are you going to do with the rest of your time here?” Adam asks Zach.

“Going to try to find a job to keep busy. I don’t like using Randall’s money.”

“Are you two going to stay in Atlanta?” Adam asks as he absently brushes sand off his legs.

“For now,” I say. “Then we’ll go back to Evanston when classes start up for winter semester.”

Adam nods in understanding. “But you’ll definitely go back to Caraica? You don’t want to stay here?”

My body stiffens slightly over Adam’s probing questions. It’s not that he’s asking anything inappropriate, but it makes me uneasy because Zach has only recently committed to spending time here and part of me is afraid he really didn’t mean that offer.

“That’s my plan, but I’m going to stay here for at least a year,” Zach says smoothly, and while it still hurts every time he talks about leaving, I’m relieved to hear absolutely no regret in his admission that he’s going to be staying for a while.