His head tucks into the crook of her neck and she feels his tongue on her skin as he sighs against her. Freeing her hand from his, she moves it to the back of his neck and slides her fingers into his hair, scratching her nails slowly down his scalp. She loves these moments afterwards almost as much as the sex itself, being able to breathe him in, his skin against hers, the feeling of them pressed together for as long as possible. Her hand settles on his back, her fingers stroking slowly over his shoulder blade as she listens to their breathing, the only sound in the room, in the whole house. He kisses her neck and lifts his head, his lips moving to cover hers in a soft, sweet kiss before he rolls onto the pillow next to her, a satisfied smile on his face.

"Looks like I picked the right woman to buy a martini for tonight." He smiles wider and his fingers trail slowly down her arm.

"Well, I was the most beautiful woman in the place apparently, and you're clearly not a stupid man..." She smiles at him and he moves his hand to her waist, his fingertips cool against her skin.

"No brainer." He inches his fingers higher, brushing the underside of her breast, stealing her breath for a second. "And no apparently about it, you were the most beautiful woman in that bar, hands down. You're usually the most beautiful in any room, so-"

"Usually?" She quirks an eyebrow, sighing when his hand moves higher, the backs of his fingers roaming over her breast, her skin puckering in response.

"Always," he says quickly, glancing down, his tongue running quickly across his top lip. "No question."

"Saved it." She smirks, pushing herself closer to him, her foot tracing up his calf as his hand moves over her skin, sending short, sharp waves of pleasure running down through her body. "Mm...that feels good."

"Feels pretty good to me too." He grins at her and moves his hand to cup her breast, pressing his thumb against her. "God, I could stay in this bed and touch you like this forever."

"Oh what the hell, let's do it. Call Spikings, tell him we're out..." She grins at the very thought. "Tell him we're running away to sunnier climes and we're going to drink cocktails all day and have hot, sweaty sex all night."

"I've never been more tempted by anything." He grins too and she knows he's picturing a similar scene to her. "I don't think the poor guy would know what to do without the crap we give him..."

"The crap you give him, Dempsey, you're the thorn in his side, don't rope me in to your misbehaviour. I think I may actually be his favourite detective, which is quite possibly the reason you get away with as much as you do." She covers his hand with hers, holding it still against her skin. He seems to take it as a sign to pull his hand from under hers and slide it down her thigh to settle between her legs. "Dempsey..."

"Yeah?" He feigns an innocent look even though he clearly knows damn well what he's doing, and she decides at that point that his touch feels just too good to resist.

"Nothing." She smiles and slides her leg over his, locking her foot around him and sighing when he starts to move his middle finger slowly and tenderly against her. "Just...I love you, that's all."

"I know that, honey. I love you too." He leans forward and kisses her, rubbing his nose against hers and grinning before he pulls back.

"Do you know that in a couple of weeks it will be three years since you arrived here?" She smiles, and then bites her lip as his hand keeps working.

"Yeah, I know." He kisses her again. "I thought I'd be out of here way before now. A year in London, put up with whatever idiot they partnered me with, wait for the heat to die down in New York, and then I'd be gone."

"I don't suppose you entertained the possibility of falling in love with the idiot they partnered you with." Closing her eyes briefly against the rising swell of heat beneath his fingers, she finds him gazing at her when she opens them again.

"Didn't count on her not being an idiot. Definitely didn't count on her being a her." He raises his eyebrows and grins.

"Because broads don't belong in the police force, I know." She returns his grin, she knows he doesn't think that way now, at least most of the time, and she knows she's the one who shifted his mindset. Her foot moves higher up his leg and his fingers keep moving against her. He speeds up slightly and she moans but shakes her head. "Slow down again, Dempsey."

He shifts his focus back to rubbing his fingers slowly against her, his eyes fixed firmly on hers. He's always looked at her like she was everything, like she's the only person in the room, like in one of those sentimental film scenes where everything is rushing and the world is frantic, except for the two main characters who stand calmly together in the centre. She will admit to a certain level of sentimentality right now justified by the fact she's currently at the mercy of his perfect fingers. He smiles slowly and she moans as he pushes his fingers harder against her, feeling a slow, perfect ripple of pleasure start to run through her. His hand stops moving and she feels herself throbbing against him as he leans in to kiss her cheek, the tip of her nose, and when he reaches her lips she smiles softly under his touch.

"You're so good at this...I think I might have to nominate you for a commendation." She sighs as he pulls back and looks at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm pretty sure they don't give them out for skills between the sheets," he says with a faint snort.

"Well, they really should." She rolls away and onto her back, tugging his hand with her and resting it on her stomach, covering it with her own.

"There must be a suggestion box or something, right?" He tickles her stomach and she smiles. "I'll get right on it. Anonymously, of course."

"Well, of course." She sits up with a sigh and moves to the edge of the bed. "I don't want to move but I really need to pee, and I need to wash my face. I put so much makeup on for my bar room sexpot act earlier it's going to take half an hour to scrub it off."

"Worth it though, right?" He catches her arm before she stands, looking closely into her face as she turns.

"Oh, definitely." She smiles, standing and leaning down to kiss him. "Like I said, you can pick me up at a bar anytime."

He follows her into the bathroom and slides his arms around her, making it slightly more difficult to wash her face but not impossible so she's certainly not going to stop him. He peppers her neck with the tiny kisses she loves and for a few delicious seconds she abandons her face washing efforts entirely. They brush their teeth standing next to each other, which always makes her happy despite feeling like a ridiculously silly thing.

"Come back to bed, baby." He kisses her cheek when he's finished and runs his hand down her arm.

"I'll be there in a minute." She smiles at him before he goes, finishing what she's doing before she heads back to join him.

He's in bed when she walks back into the room, sitting up and looking so insanely sexy she's tempted to climb straight into his lap and demand a repeat performance. Before she can act on her lustful thoughts he crooks a finger and beckons her over to him. She detours to the bedside table and opens the drawer, pulling out a small box before sliding under the covers to sit next to him.

"So...as it's Valentine's Day, I got you something…" She hands the box to him and smiles, watching as he opens it and looks at her in surprise when he sees the watch inside.

"Harry…" He grins and she's pleased by the surprised look he gives her before he runs his thumb over the watch face. "How did you know?"

"Did you really think I didn't notice how you kept looking at it every time you saw it in that shop window?" She half expected he might just buy it but then each time they walked by the jeweller's he kept looking at it, almost as if he wanted to check it was still there. "I'm a detective, it's my job to be observant."

"Lucky for me you're such a damn good detective. I love it." He kisses her and runs his thumb across her face. "So...we're finally going to New York in a couple of months."

"We are." She smiles, thinking about getting to meet his family at last, getting to see where he grew up, seeing him in his hometown. "You must be looking forward to seeing everybody so much, it's been a long time for you. I know you miss your family."

"Yeah, it'll be good to see them. I can't wait for them to meet you, even if my mom is going to try and persuade us to move there. I hope you're ready for that." He smiles at her and she feels the nerves that always come with the thought of meeting his family. "I know you're worrying again, I can hear your brain freaking out in there, but you can stop. They're going to love you, Harry."

"I'm not worrying." She shrugs but she knows he won't buy it, he knows her too well for that. "Well, not much."

"So, I've been thinking, and when we do get to New York, I don't want to introduce you to my mom as my partner at work, or my...girlfriend." He reaches for her hand and she's not sure what he's saying. His mother knows they're together, she speaks to her on the phone almost as often as he does, she sends recipes, they send photos back and forth. She once overheard Dempsey telling her he'd never been so happy and she smiled for the remainder of that afternoon.

"What do you mean? You do know it's no secret that we live together? Your mother is well aware of my existence." She frowns, even deeper still when he seems to find her confusion amusing. "I think it's a little late now to try to convince her we're just friends."

"No, I don't mean that. Shit, I really didn't want to screw this up. Okay, here's what I'm trying to say…" He slides his hand under his pillow and pulls out a small velvet box and suddenly her confusion lifts and his babbling becomes clear. "I know doing this on Valentine's Day is the most predictable thing in the world, but I wanted to do it anyway, and I really wanted to do it before we go to New York. What I want, baby, is to introduce you to them as the woman I'm going to marry."

"Oh...my God." She wonders how she completely failed to see this coming tonight, how she could possibly have had no idea at all even though there have been other times she was sure he was about to ask.

"Marry me, beautiful?" It's a proposal that's pure Dempsey. Sweet, simple, straight to the point, no dressing it up or beating about the bush and she feels herself nodding, unable to contain the smile spreading onto her lips.

"You're asking me to marry you on Valentine's Day while we're both naked in bed?" As the words come out of her mouth she realises it's probably the perfect proposal in the place they're most comfortable and she loves him for it. "Don't answer that, I know that's what you're doing and I love it. I love you."

"Don't hold out on me here, Harry. Was there a yes somewhere in there?" He looks unnecessarily nervous and she thinks it might be the most endearing thing in the world.

"Do you really think you have anything to worry about?" She smiles wider and nods. "Bloody hell, Dempsey, sometimes you can be such an idiot. Of course it's a yes."

She watches as he takes the ring out of the box and slides it onto her finger, and the slight shake in his hand makes her reach for him and kiss him. Sometimes it's the most unexpected things about him that still surprise her and she's knocked sideways a little by the realisation that he was nervous about this.

"Thank God." He sighs as he pulls away and she looks down at the ring sitting on her finger.

"Thank God it fits?" She tilts her head slightly and smiles at him. "Thank God I love it? Thank God I didn't say no?"

"Yeah." He grins at her and shrugs faintly. "Yeah, all of that."

"Well, if it didn't fit there's this wonderful thing called resizing. Jewellers do it all the time." She leans in and kisses him again. "I do love it, it's perfect, and why on earth would you think I'd say no?"

"I just...I don't know, I thought you might think it was too soon." As the words come out of his mouth she sees it dawn on him that she was never going to say no because he grins and looks slightly sheepish.

"Too soon? You know, there was a moment on my birthday when I thought you were going to ask me, and then I thought perhaps you might ask at Christmas, and there was even that night a few weeks ago when you surprised me and made dinner. I mean, you baked a cake, Dempsey. An actual, edible, really bloody good cake." She laughs thinking about how he cooked dinner for the two of them but somehow used enough kitchen equipment to have catered a Royal wedding. "I had even started to think I might have to wait a couple of years and be the one to ask you the next time February has an extra day. I didn't, for some reason, expect it tonight, on Valentine's Day, of all days."

"I live to surprise you, princess. You must know that by now." His grin holds no trace of its previous sheepishness or nerves.

"Mm, I have noticed, yes." She climbs into his lap and pushes her hips against his, enjoying the reaction in both his eyes and underneath her. "So...when your beloved proposes marriage and puts a beautiful ring on your finger, I don't think rolling over and going to sleep is an appropriate celebration."

"You don't, huh?" He runs his hands down her back and she sighs at the contact. His hands are warm, his touch is gentle. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, we could start planning our wedding." She keeps a straight face and watches as his eyes widen just slightly and he swallows hard. "Or...we could table that for now and have some more incredibly good Valentine's Day sex."

"Is this a 'vote for your favourite' kind of thing?" He smirks and his arms wrap more tightly around her back. "Because I'd have to go for option two."

"Good choice." She slides her hands onto his shoulders and down to rest on his chest, smiling at him as she looks at her own hand and the ring on her finger.

"You know what I'm looking forward to?" There's a sparkle in his eyes that she loves, that makes her smile, and fills her with warmth. "Telling the boss that I'm not down for the overtime anymore because I have to go home and make sweet love to my beautiful fiancee."

"Your timing is terrible, honey." She smirks and leans in to kiss him. "I do appreciate the sentiment but I'd really like a honeymoon somewhere warm, and peaceful, and far away, so let's not be too hasty in turning down the overtime, okay?"

"Cocktails all day and hot, sweaty sex all night, right?" He grins at her startled yelp as he flips her over onto her back and buries his face in her neck, his words tickling her skin. "Alright, baby, I'm going to take you on a practice run to paradise right now."

"Oh, you're certainly pulling out all of your finest lines tonight." She laughs and he lifts his head to look at her, the glint in his eyes quite clear. "And you don't even need to. The ring is already on my finger, the deal is done, Lieutenant."

"And all this time I had no idea you were this easy." He smirks and covers his lips with hers, presumably to ward off whatever retort she may have come up with.

"Well, I had to play at least a little hard to get. It would never have done to let you think you didn't even have to try. Where's the fun in that?" As he brushes his fingers gently through her hair she's struck by a sudden thought. "You know, I wasn't serious about planning any kind of big fancy wedding, by the way. If you can get a move on and get me to the register office, you can introduce me as your wife when we get to New York."

"Wait...you, uh, what?" It's such a rarity for him to be lost for words that his obvious shock makes her laugh out loud. "You're serious?"

"I'm completely serious." She nods and he breaks into a wide smile. "Just think, if you had asked me on my birthday we could have been married by now."

"God, I'm an idiot." He rolls to lie next to her and she turns to look at him, her hand reaching for his and tangling their fingers together. "You really want to do it before we go to New York?"

"I'd like to do it many times before we go to New York." She runs a slow and exaggerated gaze of unadulterated longing down his chest before looking back up at him with a smirk. "Oh, you mean get married...well, what do you think?"

"I think I figured you'd want time to plan something maybe a little bit fancy, and I think I love that you don't." His fingers squeeze hers and there's not a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.

"I don't want anything fancy, Dempsey. I don't want anything other than to marry you." It's true, she doesn't need a big dress, or an elaborate celebration. She had that before and she didn't enjoy a minute of it. This time it's right and all she needs is him. "Oh, and cake. I would quite like a cake."

"With two little detectives standing on the top?" She grins at that image because it's so absurd yet somehow perfect for them that it's suddenly exactly what she wants.

"With a little fondant gun for you." His thumb runs across her knuckles, softly, gently. "And tiny handcuffs for me."

"Handcuffs, huh?" His eyes light up and she laughs at the enthusiasm in his tone. "I like your thinking, partner, I really like it."

"Mm, thought you might." She feels her happiness overflowing like bubbles in a champagne glass. It's a feeling she likes, it's one she's been getting to know well since he's been in her life as more than just the partner she has to keep out of trouble. "And...one more request, I want someone to take at least a few nice pictures of us. That's it. You, me, cake, somebody with a camera. That sounds easy enough, doesn't it?"

"Consider it done, honey." His grin is as wide as she's ever seen it and it somehow amplifies her happiness even more. "Let's get married."

"You know how I've never really been all that sold on Valentine's Day?" She shuffles closer to him, pushing him onto his back and kissing him hard, running her fingers through his hair. "Well...I've changed my mind."