Kaiden knew the woman in the chair the second he walked into the room. Nine months had passed since he last saw Katie McCoy. Nine long, aching months. Remembering her touch as she'd changed his bandages or checked his pulse set his heart racing. Her fingers on his skin had done things to his insides with those simple tasks that even Cara hadn't ever once accomplished in their year of marriage. Katie had the gentlest, kindest soul he had ever known and was hot as hell itself. How did she end up involved in a case of domestic terrorism?

"How did you get here, Katie?"

She sighed. "A bunch of masked guys wearing all black and carrying seriously huge rifles broke into my apartment and dragged me out. They didn't even tell me why."

"I suspect you know why anyway."

Shadows filled her eyes as Kaiden studied her intently. "I can only imagine it has something to do with my good for nothing ex-fiancé."

Kaiden's heart skipped a beat at the mention of her former fiancé. Even though he had read the file and knew she had been engaged, thinking of her in another man's arms made him a little sick to his stomach.

You have never had any claim on her.

His body sure seemed to think otherwise.

"Was your ex-fiancé Nathan Marks?"

She scowled at the mention of his name. A good sign. "Yes."

"Is he the reason you moved to Virginia Beach?" It irritated him that she had been so close all this time and he never knew. Katie had been on his mind more than once since his release from the hospital.

"Not that it is any of your business, but yes."

"How did you two meet?" Nine months wasn't much time to relocate, meet someone, fall in love and become engaged.

"Why do you care?"

"I need to know as part of the case."

"Case? What case? I'm a nurse, not a terrorist!"

"I'm sorry, Ms. McCoy, but all of this is very important. National security is at risk."

"I don't see how my personal life has anything to do with national security!"

"If your personal life involved Nathan Marks then it is very much my business."

"It's embarrassing." She fiddled with the handcuff holding her hand in place, refusing to meet his eyes.

"Embarrassing? More embarrassing than a hotshot agent getting shot in the shoulder?" Kaiden couldn't let himself live down the circumstances of his wound. The assassin after his new cousin-in-law Angelina had gotten the drop on him on his own turf and it still pissed him off thinking about it.

Katie's head snapped up, her eyes bright with emotion. "There is nothing embarrassing about someone shooting you! You could have died!"

He flashed her a smile. "But I didn't, thanks to some excellent nursing care."

Stop flirting with her! Cute or not, she's a suspect in your case! You have a job to do here, now do it!

Kaiden tried to ignore the fact that every cell in his body ached to take her in his arms and focused on the file in front of him.

"Please tell me where you met Mr. Marks. It's important."

She leaned back in the metal folding chair and studied him intently for a moment. After a long pause, she sighed. "Online. I met him online."

"Like in a chat room?"

"Who does that anymore?" Katie asked, not hiding the surprise or humor in her voice at all.

Kaiden hated technology. He resisted it as much as possible. He hated being forced to read emails. He had embraced cell phones simply because texting made his life easier. How was he supposed to know chat rooms were apparently obsolete?

"Well, then, how?"

"An online dating website. One of the nurses I worked with at the hospital where I met… well, where you were treated felt I needed some love in my life."

"So you met and fell in love and got engaged to be married in less than nine months?"

She shook her head. "Not exactly. I was already seeing him when you and I… when you were a patient at the hospital."

"Oh. So how did you end up at the beach?" Where he lived… All those months thinking about her. So many long nights full of hot dreams and she had been right there under his very nose all along.

"Nathan lives here. When he proposed I got a job at one of the local hospitals and moved here."

"Which hospital?"

"The teaching hospital. I work in one of the research areas."

"Which area?"

"Infectious disease."

Oh, man. Maybe she was involved. The very thought made Kaiden's heart ache. His instincts insisted this woman couldn't be involved in bioterrorism. At least not knowingly. Yet, here she sat. Katie McCoy had almost married Nathan Marks. You don't get that close to someone and have no idea what they did in their spare time.

"You said Mr. Marks was your ex?"

"Thank God." Katie spat out.

"How did that come about?"

Katie shot him an angry glance. "How is that pertinent to this investigation?"

Kaiden chuckled. "Seen a few police dramas on late night TV, have you?"

She threw her free hand on her hip. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You are playing games with me and I don't understand why. I simply need to know about the nature of your relationship with Mr. Marks."

"Is it business or personal?" she shot back.

Kaiden leaned back in his chair, noting the tent in his trousers that had formed at her suggestion. "Business, of course."