Touch of Heaven Read Free Page B

feel good about handing over her property to you. Take your pick. Hell, if I were you, I’d be doing whatever it takes to get that woman to sign on the dotted line. Wine and dine her if you have to.”
    Warrick scowled at the suggestion. “Tell you what, Fuller. Let me worry about Raina St. James. You concentrate on holding down the fort in my absence. Think you can do that for me?”
    Stephon said dryly, “I think I can manage.” Just then his assistant’s voice could be heard in the background. Stephon’s response was muffled as he covered the mouthpiece with his hand.
    A moment later he came back on the line. “Darlene wants to make sure you’re all set for the videoconference this afternoon.”
    â€œI should be. You know Mabel is always on top of those things.”
    Warrick had leased out space in a downtown office building for his secretary and the other three members of his transition team who had accompanied him from Philadelphia. More staff would join them once the first phase of the construction project was under way.
    â€œHow long are you going to crash at your mother’s place?” Stephon asked. “For as long as you can take it?”
    Warrick grimaced. “Something like that.”
    Every time he mentioned renting an apartment while he waited for his own house to be built, his mother tearfully protested, reminding him that it had been his idea to buy her a sprawling eight-bedroom house in an exclusive Houston neighborhood, forcing her to leave behind all her friends in the Third Ward. Bertrice “Birdie” Mayne complained incessantly about everything from her uppity new neighbors to her frequent bouts with loneliness, although her divorced daughter and grandchild lived with her, and every time Warrick came home for a visit, his mother was merrily entertaining a houseful of guests, just as she’d done back in the day.
    â€œAt least you have the place to yourself for a few days,” Stephon said, a knowing grin in his voice. “Sending your mom, sister and niece on a Caribbean cruise was a stroke of genius.”
    Warrick chuckled dryly. “You make it sound like I got rid of them on purpose. I booked the cruise last year, before I even knew when I would be coming home. I was actually looking forward to spending some time with Yasmin and my niece.”
    â€œUh-huh. Likely story,” Stephon teased.
    â€œWhatever, man.” Warrick glanced at the clock on the gleaming mahogany dashboard. Ten-fifty. He still had a few more errands to run before he headed to his temporary office to catch up on some paperwork and attend the scheduled videoconference.
    That evening he was having dinner with Deniece Labelle, his high-school sweetheart who had tracked him down after learning that he was back in town to accept an award (his PR team had successfully managed to keep the real reason for his return under wraps). Warrick had not seen Deniece in more than ten years, but now as he tried to imagine what she must look like, his mind could only conjure an image of gorgeous, leggy Raina in that take-me-now getup, her lush, sensual mouth slicked with gloss, her high, round breasts rising and falling above the scooped neckline of her dress.
    Warrick swore under his breath at the tightening in his groin. Old grudge be damned. His body had a mind of its own.
    â€œI gotta run,” he told Stephon. “Talk to you at the meeting.”
    Warrick disconnected and shoved the BlackBerry handheld inside his breast pocket, wondering if Raina was watching him from her office window and deliberating whether to call security to have him removed from the premises.
    Mouth twisting cynically at the thought, Warrick surveyed the small Spanish-style building, with its red-tiled roof and green canopy hanging over the entrance, the words Touch of Heaven Day Spa stenciled in fancy white letters.
    The popular establishment was located on the outskirts of Uptown Park,