“I don’t know if that’s actually possible, Cat,” he admitted. He hadn’t thought of that. “I figured she was resting up for the big event.”

He finished what was left on his plate because no way was he going to leave one bite of food that Catarina had cooked for him. He leaned back in his chair and reached for a beignet to go with his coffee.

“I hope so. Now that I’ve seen your leopard and it didn’t eat me or anything, I kind of like the idea of her.”

“She’ll be tough to handle at first, but you’re strong and you’ve got courage. You’ll do fine with her.”

She looked up at him from under her long lashes. “Do you know how many times you’ve said nice things to me, Eli?”

“Someone should have been saying nice things to you your entire life, Kitten. You shouldn’t have had a junkie for a mother, or Rafe for a guardian. You should have grown up in a house filled with love. I can’t do a thing about your past, but I can make damn certain you feel loved in your future. And when we have kids, we’ll be saying nice things to them a hundred times a day.”

Her gaze clung to his. Again he saw hope there—and fear mixed up with it, like she was still afraid to believe, but willing to try. “I’ll get the dishes. You get dressed to work out. Have you climbed before?”

“Climbed in what way?”

“Up a mountain. A boulder. A climbing wall. Anything at all.”

“They don’t have mountains where I come from, and Rafe would never have allowed me inside of a place where there was a climbing wall. I had men following me around all the time.”

“How did you get away from him this last time?”

“He had sensors on the windows and doors. He forgot the floor. I was careful, so there was no evidence I was pulling up the floorboards so I had a space big enough to drop down into. He didn’t put cameras in the bathrooms or the bedrooms, other than mine. I just had to take my time. I figured out how to beat the combination of his safe so I’d have running money. I learned to read by watching children’s shows. He’d hear them on and it would only reinforce his belief that I wasn’t too bright.”