The Billionaire Single Dad Read Online Free Page B

contractor.”
    She stopped and folded her arms across her chest as she studied him. Her blue eyes narrowed and her lips drew together in an adorable pucker. Tess looked him slowly over from head to toe and her cheeks flushed as though her thoughts had ventured somewhere inappropriate. Carter’s stomach knotted up as he felt the beginnings of a stirring that he almost didn’t recognize. Two years was a hell of a dry spell. He was surprised his body hadn’t gone into shock at the first hint of being turned on.
    A wide grin curved her lush mouth. “Personal trainer?”
    Her intense scrutiny flushed Carter with heat. He turned away, toward the ladder that led up to the loft and climbed. “You’re getting warmer.”
    The rungs beneath him creaked with Tess’s added weight. So far, the barn was proving sturdier than it looked. “You own a chain of gyms?”
    Carter snorted. “No.”
    His wide shoulders barely fit through the square that opened up into the loft. Carter hoisted himself up to sit on the floor, and a moment later Tess’s head popped through the opening. Her brows knitted as she held his gaze. “Are you an athlete?”
    â€œWhy would you think that?”
    She looked away. “You’re not exactly built like a guy who spends all day at a desk.”
    A flash of heat licked up his spine. Her voice had gone low and husky with the words. Carter’s throat went suddenly dry and his tongue tried to stick to the roof of his mouth.
    â€œI’m not a fan of desks,” he said with a nervous laugh. Lord, it had been so long since he’d tried to be even marginally charming. He hadn’t dated, flirted, even looked at another woman since he was seventeen years old. This was definitely virgin territory. “You really don’t know what I do for a living?”
    Tess hoisted herself up to sit opposite him on the floor. “Should I?”
    Carter cupped the back of his neck and tried to rub out some of the nervous tension that settled there. “I guess not.”
    â€œOh my god,” Tess’s tone shifted from playful to mortified. “You’re not a Cowboys fan. You’re a player, aren’t you?”
    Carter gave her a questioning look.
    â€œThe flag,” Tess said. “On your patio. I thought you were a big football fan, but you play for the Cowboys, don’t you?”
    He’d forgotten all about the flag. After he’d signed with the team, he’d let Travis use the house for the weekend and his brother had put up the Cowboy’s flag as a sort of congratulations. Carter had planned to take it down and replace it with a Dallas Stars flag in support of Travis’s team making it to the playoffs, but he hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
    â€œQuarterback,” he said.
    Tess rocked backward, her grimace of embarrassment coaxing a grin to Carter’s lips. “You must think I’m such an idiot. I bet people recognize you everywhere you go.”
    She gave him way too much credit in the fame department. “Not really. Unless you follow football, or the team specifically.” Carter decided to omit the bit about being born into Dallas high society. It was a fact he and his brothers tried to avoid at all costs.
    â€œIf I’d ever seen you play—even once—I wouldn’t have forgotten who you are.”
    Her gaze leveled on him and once again Carter felt the stirrings of something so unfamiliar it might as well be alien. “I doubt I’m that memorable.”
    â€œAre you kidding?” Tess’s eyes widened. “Do you not own any mirrors? Believe me, Carter, you’re that memorable.”
    His heart pounded in his chest as her voice once again took on that husky, flirty quality. It’s not as though women hadn’t tried to flirt with him over the past year and half. He’d been hit on here and there. But he’d been so wrapped up in his own grief