Married To The Wrong Brother

Chapter 6

Sabrina was running through her notes for the third time when she overheard two employees by the coffee station, their voices pitched low but not nearly low enough.

"Ladies, you wouldn't believe who's going to be representing Gates Sugar Corporation today."

"Wait. Finn?"

"No, silly. Miller Guidotti. The president. Himself."

Sabrina's coffee nearly came back up her throat.

"No way."

"You heard me right. The one and only."

"He's never once shown up for a contract renewal. Ever. It's the chairman, or it's some assistant nobody's ever heard of. Not him."

She watched the other woman immediately start adjusting their breast, reapplying make-up, smoothing down fabric that didn't need smoothing.

"What are you doing?" Sabrina asked.

"Trying to look my best. I heard he's single, but his bed sure isn't." They both dissolved into laughter.

Sabrina didn't laugh. She was more surprised, shocked to hear he'd be in the same boardroom where she'd be doing the presentation.

Two minutes to the presentation, and she still couldn't fully shake Miller from her head.

She glanced down and realized, with a small jolt, that his jacket was still draped over her shoulders. She almost shrugged it off right there. But she'd freeze before she made it through forty-five minutes in a room full of executives, so she kept it on and hoped no one would ask.

Her alarm went off.

Three o'clock.

She knew she wasn't ready. But she walked to the front of the room anyway, because there was no version of today where she got to be anything other than ready.

At 3:06, the door opened, and Miller Guidotti walked in.

A woman trailed behind him, polished and composed in the way only someone who'd done this a hundred times could be. His secretary, presumably. Sabrina's expression faltered slightly at the sight of her, though she couldn't have said exactly why.

Miller took his seat at the head of the long table, and the room seemed to adjust around him. His shirt was unbuttoned just slightly at the collar, no jacket in sight, which made sense, considering he didn't have one. She was wearing it.

"Welcome." Sabrina's voice came out steadier than she felt. "Today I'll be walking you through sugar and how we can elevate your products using our resources."

Miller's eyes didn't leave her, not once, the entire time she spoke. She caught the faint curve of his mouth when his gaze landed on the jacket, like he found it fitting that it suited her better than it ever suited him.

She could feel his attention like heat against her skin, but instead of unraveling her, it sharpened her. She'd had almost no time to prepare for this, and yet she knew this material better than Harold himself.

Their eyes met again midway through, and her voice trembled for half a second. "I'll—I'll go ahead and show you our samples."

She pushed through it. Clara's life depended on this presentation going well, and she refused to let a pair of unreasonably attentive eyes derail her.

By the end, when their eyes met one final time, his expression had shifted into something she couldn't quite place. Impressed, maybe. Or disappointed.

He raised his hand, and her stomach dropped. He asked a precise, difficult question, and she answered it cleanly, calmly, well enough that several people in the room actually applauded. Miller didn't. He just watched her, unmoving, while everyone else clapped around him.

She returned to her seat, and Vector stood to take over the rest of the meeting. Throughout every other presentation that followed, Sabrina and Miller kept catching each other's eyes from across the room. She tried to stop. He apparently didn't try at all, barely registering anyone else who spoke after her.

When the meeting finally wrapped, Miller said, simply, "That presentation was impressive."

Vector straightened, practically beaming. "Thank you, Mr. Guidotti."

"Not you." Miller's gaze slid past him entirely, landing on Sabrina. "Her."

"I agree," someone else added, and the room turned to look at her, which only made the moment feel heavier for Sabrina than it needed to.

The executives filtered out one by one until the room had nearly emptied. Sabrina immediately walked straight toward her father.

"I did what you asked, now—"

"Ms. Smith, is it?"

She turned. Miller hadn't moved from his seat.

"Yes. That's me." She kept her eyes off her father, who she could feel watching her with open suspicion.

"I'd like a word. Five minutes?" He glanced at Harold, his expression cooling several degrees in the process.

"She'll give you an hour if you need it." Harold smiled. Mr. Guidotti had chosen Sabrina for this presentation. He probably needed more important things, so Harold leaned in close enough to whisper. "Whatever he asks for, you agree. Adjustments, terms, anything. If it helps, let him believe you're still VP. If we lose him, that presentation means nothing."

He shut the door behind him on his way out, leaving Sabrina alone with Miller in the boardroom.

She crossed the room and instinctively reached to shrug the jacket off her shoulders. "If this is about the jacket—"

"It's yours." He nodded toward the chair across from him. "Your presentation really was excellent. No wonder my grandfather refused to consider working with anyone else."

"That's kind of you to say." She sat, smoothing her skirt out of habit. "And thank you for earlier. Getting us to the hospital so quickly. And for the jacket."

"Thank you for saving my daughter's life."

"It was nothing. Anyone would have done the same." She added, "How is she?"

"She's back home." His eyes dropped to her finger and he noticed something that sparked his interest. "Are you engaged?"

Sabrina instinctively hid her hand. She hadn't realized she still had Finn's ring on until now. “Not anymore.”

He cleared his throat. "Alright. I have a proposition for you.”

He pulled a black folder from his bag and slid it across the table toward her.

"What kind of proposition?" She slowly opened it, unsure what to expect, especially since Harold told her to do whatever he asked.

The moment her eyes landed on the heading, her eyes furrowed, and her jaw dropped.

Marriage Contract Between Miller Guidotti and Sabrina Smith.

She looked up sharply to see Miller watching her reaction with the same unreadable calm he'd carried through the entire presentation.

“What is this, Mr. Guidotti?”