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They didn't speak on the way back to the Grossberg Law Offices. Mia's throat was too tight with unshed tears to say anything, and Diego was occupied, hands clasped together and blood rolling between his fingers and dripping onto his dark grey slacks. Despite this, they walked perfectly in sync through the building and straight to Diego's office, Mia stopping only to grab the first aid kit from the bathroom. Only when the door was closed behind them and Mia has drawn the blinds did she break the silence
"Let me see," Mia reached out for Diego's hand, but he flinched away from her touch.
"No, kitten, it's fine. I'll be fine." The nickname stung Mia, makes the corners of her eyes smart, but she pushed the feeling down and reached out again. The roughness in his voice told her he was really in pain.
"If you need stitches, we need to know now."
"I don't need stitches," He said it, but didn't pull away this time as Mia took his hand in both of hers, simply readjusted so he was half sitting, half leaning against his desk. She pulled his left hand away, the palm smeared with blood, and examined the right. There was a deep cut across his palm and smaller lacerations across his fingers. To be completely truthful, he probably did need stitches, but there were butterfly bandages in the first aid kit, so she decided to make do.
Mia learned a lot of first aid in Kurian, being so isolated they treated as much as possible themselves, and so she was quick to get to work. Taking out the hydrogen peroxide, she pressed a cotton ball to the opening of the bottle and quickly flipped it, soaking the cotton in liquid.
"This will hurt," she warned Diego, and he nodded stoically, saying nothing as she ran first one cotton ball, then another across his hand, disinfecting and soaking up the blood. Mia reached for the butterfly bandage next, but when she tried to press the edges of the wound together, he made a soft gasping noise.
"I'm sorry," Mia paused, looking up at the older lawyer and suddenly becoming acutely aware of his brown eyes on her. They were usually so lively, but now he was serious, gaze trained on her with a burning intensity that made heat bloom in her cheeks.
"Don't be," Diego murmured. "And...thank you for doing this for me."
"Of course," She replied, breaking eye contact to finish applying the butterfly bandage. "At least I have soft hands."
That got a hint of that trademark half-cocked smile out of him. "Don't stop, kitten." Diego says the line softly, and in a way Mia knows is supposed to be deeply sensual, and would have been if he'd stopped before the "kitten". That one little word that made every fiber of her being go on alert.
"Don't call me that," She sighed, placing a strip of gauze over his palm, then cut a strip of medical tape and beginning to wrap it around his hand to hold it in place. Mia took a moment to turn it in her grip, taking in the bone structure and how much bigger it is than her own, feeling the heat that radiated off of him.
Diego's eyes were suddenly guarded as he looked at her. "If you've taken that as an unwanted advance, I'm sorry, I just-"
"I didn't take it as an unwanted advance!" Mia cut him off, purposefully leaving her phrasing ambiguous so he didn't feel as if she was outright rejecting him. That was far from the case. She had been enamored by the man from the moment she walked in the door. His smirk, his confidence, and his good heart and brave face had drawn her in, but it was things like this, the subtle way he made it known he thought himself better than her, that kept Mia from truly falling for him.
"Then what's the problem?"
"You're talking down to me," Mia snapped it, letting all her frustration stay in her voice as she kept her hands light, wrapping bandaids around his fingers. "and I don't appreciate it."
"I'm not talking down to you," Deigo cocked his head, but instead of smirking, he looked hurt.
She huffed out a breath. It was not her job to explain basic decency to men, no matter how attractive, and the fact that he genuinely didn't see the problem or even seem to want to hear her out made her angry. "Well I feel talked down to, so I don't think you get to say that."
"Kit-" Mia felt a small amount of satisfaction watching him cut himself off. "Mia. That was never my intention. It's an endearment!"
Finished, she threw up her hands, dropping his back onto his lap. "Maybe, but I don't see you calling anyone else around here 'kitten,' and I'd be willing to bet it's because I'm the pretty girl with the shiny new badge who doesn't know what she's doing!"
That sparked anger in Diego's eyes. "Are you calling me misogynistic?"
"Not in those words," Mia was standing at her full height now, and she was a tall woman, but even still, he was almost half a head taller. Ignoring it, she poked a finger into his chest, right above where his jacket closed. "Because I know you don't do it intentionally, but somewhere in your head I know you think I'm not as good as you!"
"Of course I don't think that!" His voice was raised now too, and Diego leaned in slightly. Mia realized as he did that she had drawn closer to, and what had never been very much space between them was now mere inches.
"Once again, I think I would know!" Mia tried to keep her voice even. She cried whenever she got upset, and she was not going to do that now, not in front of Diego. "I've had to work twice as hard as any man to get here. Definitely harder than you've ever worked for anything in your life, what with that stupid smile and perfect face! I graduated top of my class! I'm the first woman in my whole town to go to college! Do you think that was easy! Do you know how many people have told me that I wasn't good enough despite all of that, just because I'm a woman? Well, I'll save you the math but it's enough to know that when you call me 'kitten' it means you think of me as something soft and fragile that you have to take care of!"
"I have never once thought of you as soft or fragile!" The heat in his eyes has intensified, but there's something else there too, behind the anger and the tension. "Mia, why do you think I took you under my wing? It's because you're one of the best lawyers I've ever met. Not only are you brilliant and talented, you have a passion we need in this line of work! All I've ever wanted was to help you take that talent, that passion, and hone it into something beautiful. Mia, I call you kitten because you matter to me! Because-"
"Diego, shut up!" Mia yelled, then surged forward and kissed him hard. Diego made a soft noise of surprise against her mouth, then threw himself into the kiss, meeting her halfway. They kissed fiercely, putting all the passion and frustration into the press of their bodies, the movement of their tongues, and the graze of teeth against each other's lips.
Desperate to avoid having to take a step backward, Mia wrapped her arms around his body, dragging her nails along his clothed back. This kitten has claws, she thought vindictively, feeling the way Diego shuddered against her body at the touch. Then he had his hand in her hair, twisting gently, and it was Mia's turn to make a noise, bright sparks lighting off in her head as he kissed her even harder, simultaneously wrapping his other arm around her waist, keeping Mia from using the fact that she had both feet on the ground as an advantage.
This man will be the death of me, she thought distantly, but that's not even a bad way to die.
When they finally broke apart, chests heaving, lips swollen, eyes bright, no one said anything for a long moment.
"I-" Mia started, then broke off, not sure what to say. She'd just made a romantic advance on her superior, but also just had one of the best kisses of her life, from the man she'd been fighting feelings for since he first introduced himself to her. There were too many emotions in her head to even begin sorting them out properly.
One look at Diego told her he was similarly shellshocked. His eyes were wider than she'd ever seen them, pupils blown and eyebrows curved high on his forehead, confident veneer wavering.
"Mia, please for the love of god tell me you don't regret that," Diego's voice was rough, now for a different reason, and that made Mia shiver.
"No, I don't," She took a shaky breath. "It's just a lot, with everything that's happened today..." At the mention of their disastrous trial, the fight went out of her, blinking up at Diego with all the confusion and hurt and want in her eyes.
"Oh honey," He tugged her gently against his chest, and Mia took some comfort in the solid warmth of his body. "That was the worst thing I've ever seen happen in the courtroom. Don't beat yourself up about it. You did the best anyone could have done."
"Honey?" She looked up at him quizzically, warmth filling her chest at the praise.
Diego's trademark smirk was back. "Well, I have to call you something, and kitten is clearly off the table."
"I don't know," Mia tried her own smile on. "Don't get me wrong, I still don't think unsolicited pet names are a good president to set with women, especially not that one, but since you've convinced me so thoroughly here, I think I can make an exception. Don't expect to win them all though."
He brought his hand up to her face, running a thumb (the only unbandaged finger) lightly across her cheek. "Didn't I already talk to you about confidence already, kitten? That means always expecting to win."
"Mmm, sounds like arrogance to me," She tapped his chest again, but lightly this time. "And didn't I talk to you about respecting women? That means I get a say too."
Diego didn't respond, just looked down at her with so much affection it made her breath catch. Finally he said "Alright then. Will the Lady Mia allow me to take her out to dinner?"
"Diego, you're doing it again," The edge had crept back into Mia's voice. "You're mocking me for having a voice."
He let out a soft sight. "Ok, ok, you're right. I'm sorry. I'll tease you more carefully in future. But seriously, do you want to go get dinner? My treat."
"Ok," Mia smiled back at him. "And for our second date, we can fill out the paperwork for Grossberg."
"I don't know," Diego mused. "I was thinking hunting Dahlia for sport, but I see your point."
Mia gently lifted his bandaged hand from her face and entwined it with her own. "Third date. We get coffee, and then we learn everything there is to learn about Dahlia Hawthorne.
Another one of those heart-stopping crooked grins. "Now you're speaking my language. We'll take her down, kitten, if it's the last thing we ever do."