“Baby, I’m not asking anything of you,” he said softly. “I know you’re not there yet. You still have no reason to trust me, but you committed to me a few nights ago. You gave yourself to me, put yourself back on the line, and not once in the last four days have you brought up the fact that I lied to you when we met. Not one time. You were true to your word and you’re trying to put it behind us. Do you know how big a gift that is to me? What you gave me? Do you have any idea what giving that to me means to me?” She was the most unusual woman on earth. He couldn’t imagine another woman forgiving him and putting herself in harm’s way again, not like that. And not throwing it in his face at every opportunity.

He reached around her to take the cap off the bottle and hand it to her. “Drink. You have to be thirsty after all that. I intend to take the best care of you. The kind of care you give me, Cat. You make me feel loved whether you know it or not.”

“I’ve never had anyone love me.” She made the admission in a small, shaky voice and immediately took a drink. Her hand trembled as she held the bottle to her mouth so he steadied her hand for her with his own.

His heart turned over. Melted. “That isn’t true.”

“No. It is. It is true. My birth mother died having me. My father remarried when I was about two. He died a year later. I don’t remember much about him and nothing about my birth mother. He left me with Tracy and for as long as I can remember, she did drugs and drank. She was the only mother I ever had, the only person I had growing up, but I was definitely in her way. And then she gave me to Rafe.”

He brought his hand up to the nape of her neck, fingers working at her muscles there. “Tracy Benoit isn’t your birth mother?” Why didn’t anyone have that information? It wasn’t in her file.

What he really wanted to know was her reaction to his admission—his confession. She looked a little shell-shocked. His Catarina could take him being rough and bossy and arrogant far easier than when he was loving and kind to her. Now he knew why. She’d never had loving and kind. She didn’t know what to do with that.