"The women I've been with, even the ones I thought I could have somethin' with," which was really only Kate (and Cassidy, for a little while), "it was never gonna work. I never felt this with anyone, Juliet. I need you to know it."

What he's trying to say and what he wants her to really grasp, is that Kate was the closest he'd come to some kind of normalcy, to hoping maybe to be understood and loved. But he'd realized eventually it wouldn't work because Kate wasn't capable of it. She wanted to use him and manipulate him, but he was willing to accept even that.

"Just never figured I deserved anything better. The way you love me, it's just...for me."

And it makes him feel alive and whole for the first time in his life.