The Sheik's Reluctant Lover Page 0,38
tedious, but by Wednesday evening, she was eagerly preparing his house for his dinner party. There would be more people this time, with his whole house filled with guests. She’d even had to order a white tent for the backyard in order to hold more guests for the dinner and dancing he had planned.
Her phone beside her elbow rang and she looked at the number. Thankfully it was just Lenora so she picked it up. “Hi, what’s up?” she asked cheerfully but was still sifting through all the notes on her desk.
“There are two big, beautiful boxes here that were just delivered for you,” the receptionist explained.
Rachel was confused. She looked at her calendar, trying to see if she was expecting something for the party that she’d forgotten about. “What are they?” she asked, confirming that she hadn’t forgotten anything. Everything was supposed to be delivered to the farm so she couldn’t imagine anything coming here.
Rachel told her she’d be right there and hung up the phone. Picking up her notebook where she kept all the information on her events, she walked to the lobby, confused about what might have been delivered here accidentally.
When she reached the lobby, she saw the huge boxes with a giant ribbon on the front. Both boxes were long and flat with an exclusive department store label on the outside.
“These look exciting!” Lenora was saying. “Open them here so I can see, okay?”
Rachel smiled slightly but shook her head. “I have no idea what these are but I’d better get them out of here. You know how Derrick prefers his reception area to look nice and tidy.”
Lenora frowned, but knew that Rachel was correct. It was her job to get deliveries out of the reception area quickly so the white lines and punches of color were undisturbed by extraneous trash.
Rachel carried the boxes back to her tiny office, ignoring the curious stares of her co-workers.
When she untied the ribbons and pulled off the top of the first box, her reaction was total stunned surprise. “Goodness,” she whispered in awe.
Lifting up the material, she was shocked by the incredible dress that was wrapped in tissue paper. It was a stunning Emilio Pucci evening gown done completely in black lace with an under dress of shimmering gold. The dress would hug her figure from her shoulders to mid-thigh and then it flared out to her toes. It was so beautiful she couldn’t believe that she was actually holding such a masterpiece.
She heard someone gasp from her doorway and looked up. “Is that an Emilio Pucci?” Linda whispered with reverence?”
“Yes. It was just delivered.”
Linda, one of the other junior coordinators that Rachel occasionally had lunch with, stepped into her office and touched the black lace. “How can you afford something like this on our salary? It’s something like four thousand dollars!”
Rachel’s eyes snapped up to her friend’s. “Are you serious?” she gasped.
Linda only nodded, her eyes remaining on the gown. “Positive. I was looking at it just last weekend, drooling over the dress.” She glanced up with eagerness. “What’s in the other one?” she asked, almost whispering.
Rachel carefully tucked the black lace dress back into the box, gently covering it with the tissue paper before pulling the second box forward. When she opened this one, she felt as if her eyes were going to pop out of her head. The Akris gown was almost too beautiful to touch. It was a bodice cut made up in glowing pink silk that would hug her chest, skim along her hips and then flare out to the floor.
“Well, that one isn’t four thousand,” Linda sighed, her fingers delicately touching the material.
“Thank goodness,” Rachel replied, almost afraid to pull it out of the box but Linda’s reassurance had her taking it gently and holding it up to her.
“I didn’t even drool over that one. It was in a glass case at the store. I think it was closer to twelve thousand dollars,” she explained. “That kind of dress is so out of my league I didn’t dare get close to it.”
Rachel almost dropped the dress with the news that the one dress could cost so much money. She wasn’t even sure she made half that much in a month!
“Who sent you these?” Linda asked, moving forward to peek into the box.
Rachel did the same, spotting the card as she shuffled the tissue to pull it out of the box. Her fingers were shaking as she opened the envelope. She had a suspicion