HOT SEAL Lover (HOT SEAL Team - Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

should come as no surprise, you being a Girard and all.”
    Christina’s heart thumped the way it always did when someone mentioned her family name in connection with her upbringing. If they only knew the hell that being a Girard had been. But when you had money, nobody cared that you were lonely and ignored or that your father was cold and uninvolved in your life.
    And then there were the times when he’d screamed at Matt for no real reason she could tell. He’d screamed at her too, but not often. Matt usually took the brunt of it. Once he’d left for West Point, she’d expected their father to take his anger out on her instead.
    He’d only done it once. She remembered him screaming at her, calling her names—and then Granny was there and he went quiet. Christina had fled the room, so she never knew what Granny said. But Granny came and stayed with them after that. She stayed until the school year was over—and Christina’s father had never yelled at her again.
    “Hey,” Remy suddenly said, his forehead creasing in a frown. “I didn’t mean that as an insult or anything.”
    Christina forced a smile. “No, I know. It’s just…” She sighed. “Sometimes what looks really great on the outside isn’t so great on the inside. Money doesn’t make you happy.”
    “I’ve never had any, but yeah, I can see where that would be true. I hope it wasn’t too bad.”
    The waitress brought their beers then, and Christina sipped hers straight from the bottle. It was a small rebellion since she’d always been told that ladies asked for glasses and poured their beer if it wasn’t draft. Sorry, Granny.
    “No, not bad. Just a bit lonely, I guess. Matt was always doing his own thing. Our father wasn’t home a lot—and when he was, he was drunk. I already told you our mother died when we were young. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. She lived in Baton Rouge, and her house was like a refuge to me. Except for the part where she insisted on sending me to Junior Cotillion. But heck, Matt had to go too, so there was that.”
    Remy took a drink of his own beer. “I never did anything like that.”
    “You didn’t miss anything really.”
    Her phone rang, startling her. She hadn’t been expecting a call, which meant it was probably work.
    “I’m sorry,” she said, fishing in her purse. “I’m working on an important business deal, and I need to check this.” Answering a phone during dinner was something she’d learned not to do in Cotillion, but sometimes she had to for the sake of the company.
    Remy shrugged. “It’s okay.”
    She took the phone out and glanced at it. She debated answering but decided she could take it later.
    “It’s my father,” she explained as she put the phone away again.
    “Do you want to take it?”
    “No, it can wait until later. It’s probably something business related.” But not related to her deal, because he wasn’t involved in that. He never called her about anything important. It was either mundane business stuff or something to do with Misty Lee and the party. She was betting on Misty Lee.
    “You work in the family business?”
    “Actually, yes. I trained as a petroleum engineer, though I’m more on the business side of things these days. I’m responsible for seeking new business and making sure Girard Oil presents a good picture to our potential partners. Not very exciting compared to what you do.”
    “And what does a petroleum engineer do exactly?”
    “Well, we try to find more efficient ways to extract oil and gas. Before I moved to business development, I spent a lot of time in the lab and a lot of time in the field testing processes and equipment.”
    His gaze sharpened with interest. “Did you ever go out of the country for the job?”
    “Sometimes. Russia and the Middle East mostly, though I’ve been to South America as well. I still go to those places, though I’m typically meeting with potential new clients.”
    “Does your company hire