There was something to be said for having a big family with lots of connections. Things, even big things, got done quickly. Dom, Joel, and Ramona were going to have a great time at the rock concert, and Haven and I ... well, we were going to have a pretty great time, too.

It was nearly midnight when I got to her place. A combination of anticipation and nervous energy had my body humming. That wasn’t something I was used to. Adrenaline rushes, sure; they were part of being a cop. But hoping to convince Haven that I was worth spending the rest of her life with? Not so much.

I squeezed the flowers in my left hand, feeling the stems crush in my grip as I raised my right hand to knock. I hadn’t even made contact when the door was opened suddenly.

My knees went weak, and I swear my heart stopped altogether for several seconds. I could only gape, slack-jawed, struck dumb by the sight of Haven in a sexy sheath of silk and lace.

She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

The way she looked at me sent shivers down my spine. Good shivers. The kind that told me in no uncertain terms that she was claiming me as her own.

I wondered if she knew I already was hers and always would be.

I wasn’t sure how long we stared at each other before the sound of feet coming up the stairs snapped us out of it. Then Haven wrapped her delicate fingers around my wrist and tugged me inside.

“You look ...” I swallowed hard, unable to come up with a word that could come close to describing how she looked to me. Beautiful, stunning, gorgeous, amazing—those were the words that paraded through my brain, and all were woefully inadequate.

She stared up at me, eyes wide, lips slightly parted, waiting for me to finish. That was when I noticed something else in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before—uncertainty.

“... like mine,” I finally growled.

Just like that, the uncertainly vanished, replaced with triumph. It would have given me pause if it didn’t make me so damn happy.

I tossed the flowers aside and gathered her into my arms, descending on her lips, finding her hungry and intent on letting me know she was one hundred percent mine.

I’d had everything planned out in my mind. Slow seduction. Careful attention to detail. I wanted to make it so she couldn’t conceive of wanting anything else beside me and how I could make her feel.

All of that vanished the instant I felt Haven scraping her nails against my chest as she tried to unbutton my shirt.

I hissed and helped her along, then turned my attention back to her.

“This is so sexy,” I told her between passionate kisses.

“Glad you like it,” she panted in response.

“Take it off. Now.”

The skin to skin contact was more than I could bear. Like a match to dry tinder soaked in lighter fluid, I went up in flames. Thankfully, Haven was right there with me.

We stumbled toward her bedroom, shedding articles of clothing along the way. We almost made it, too.

It was fast. Furious. And so damn hot.

Had I been a lesser man, I might have been embarrassed by my own exuberance. Haven didn’t seem to mind, though, and hers was the only opinion I cared about. Now that we had taken the edge off, we could take our time. Maybe. Just crawling into bed with her soft, warm body pressed against mine was enough to have me readying for round two.

Haven curled up against me, and that felt almost as good as the sex.

“Thank you,” she said on a sigh.

I laughed. “Baby, you never have to thank me for that.”

She laughed, too. “I meant for this weekend. I can’t even imagine how much effort and expense it took to pull it off.”

Inwardly, I was pleased that she recognized my efforts, but what she didn’t realize was I would have done so much more for her. For me. For us.

“It wasn’t a big deal.”

She kissed my neck, right below my jaw. “Hmmm. And here I was going to spend the rest of the weekend expressing my appreciation.”

“In that case,” I told her, sliding my hand down the curve of her back, “you’re right. It was a very big deal. Huge, in fact.”

She laughed softly, and then, because she was a woman of her word, she proceeded to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was the luckiest man on the planet.

By the time Sunday rolled around, I felt we were both ready for the meet-the-family moment. Our thirty-six-hour, intense, getting-to-know-each-other weekend had done wonders for laying any doubts to rest. We talked. We cuddled. We made love often. We even managed to catch some of the Untouchables marathon on the classic movie channel while we replenished our energy levels with carb-laden take-out.

“Best weekend ever,” she told me as she brushed her hair. Her eyes were shining, her skin was glowing, and her smile was radiant. I took great satisfaction in the knowledge that I was the one who did that.

“No argument there.”

“It’s going to be hard to top that.”

Oh, I had a couple of ideas ...