Back on the sidewalk, Adam considered his options for a minute before he withdrew his phone, ignored the resounding objections of his conscience and pinpointed her location using the coordinates of her phone. “What the hell is she doing at the beach at this hour?” He walked to the far side of town, cutting through the ferry-landing parking lot to get there quicker. Would he find her alone, or had she gone there with a guy?

The thought of that had Adam jogging the last quarter mile, cresting the dunes in time to see Abby float into a moonbeam. When he realized she was naked, every thought drained from his head and all the blood in his body rushed to his groin. “Good God,” he whispered, gripped by the erotic scene and relieved to find her alone, even if he was dismayed at the idea of her swimming by herself at a deserted beach.

And then the devil took hold of him as he realized another opportunity that had him holding back a laugh at the thought of it. Moving stealthily and using the faint light of the moon to guide him, he found her pile of clothes in the sand and gathered them, her shoes and purse, retreating toward the dunes about a hundred feet from where she’d left her stuff. He sat to wait, holding back the need to laugh so he wouldn’t alert her to his presence.

Maybe it wasn’t very nice to play a practical joke on her, but it wasn’t nice of her to disappear for hours without a word to him when they’d made tentative plans. It served her right, or so he told himself. His conscience was being a real pain in the ass where she was concerned.

He didn’t have to wait long for her to emerge from the water and venture up the beach looking for her stuff. He’d bet everything he had that she was now regretting her impulsive swim when it dawned on her that she didn’t have a towel or any way to dry off before getting dressed. She had bigger problems than that, not that she’d realized it yet.

Adam could just barely see her from where he sat, but he could tell she was looking for her stuff and becoming increasingly nervous, which made him feel extra guilty. Time to make his presence known.

“Looking for something?” he called out to her.

She let out a squawk of surprise. “Adam? What’re you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Did you take my clothes?”

“Maybe.”

“Oh my God! What are you, twelve?”

“Apparently.”

“Give them back. This instant!”

Smiling, Adam held back a laugh that would get him into even more trouble. “Come get them.”

“I am not doing that.”

“Since you need what I’ve got, I think you’d better do what you’re told.”