Teresa Medeiros by Thief of Hearts Page B

and Claremont’s affable expression slipped into place like a mask.
    Lucy stared in horror as her father dropped the newspaper, his florid complexion deepening to scarlet, then bruised purple. For one irrational moment, she believed Claremont had done something terrible to him with nothing more than the power of that murderous stare.
    Her bodyguard leaped to his feet and hastened around the table, shoving the panicked footman out of the way. Locking his hands together, he gave the Admiral one sharp blow between the shoulder blades.The Admiral sucked in a tortured gasp of air, his eyes watering with relief. Lucy snapped out of her daze and rushed to her father’s side, pressing a water goblet into his hand.
    Claremont pounded the Admiral’s back with more relish than Lucy deemed necessary. “You might try some butter next time, sir. It makes the toast go down more smoothly.”
    Lucy scowled at him, but her father was in no condition to chide Claremont for his insolence. “Not the bread,” he wheezed, stabbing his forefinger at the fallen newspaper. “
Him!
The bastard’s going to be the death of me yet!”
    Claremont reached for the paper, but Lucy swept it out from under his hand, immediately finding the words scripted in bold letters beneath the paper’s banner.
    “ ‘Captain Doom’,”
she read softly, the name an unwitting entreaty on her lips.
    Gerard was thankful her father was still occupied with fighting to breathe. One glimpse of his daughter’s unguarded face in that moment and Gerard had little doubt that the Admiral would lock her away and toss out the key. Her color had heightened to creamy peach and her taut lips had softened to a tantalizing pout. With a distinctly unpleasant shock, Gerard realized that he would have liked to touch them, nibble them, plunge his tongue between their delectable curves.
    The unbidden notion opened up a realm of disturbing possibilities. Dangerous regrets.
    “ ‘After forcing the frigate into surrender off the coast of Dover,’ ” Lucy read, “ ‘the masked pirate invited (at pistol point) the blindfolded captain and his officers to join him and his crew for a gentlemanly game of faro aboard their ship. Although it is rumored Captain MacGower of the
HMS Guenevere
won backover one thousand pounds of the Royal Treasury gold confiscated by the brigands, he was not amused by the pirate’s antics.’ ”
    Neither was Gerard.
    Lucy lifted her gaze from the paper to stare right through him, her eyes softened to the misty gray of the sea at dawn. The tender yearning in their depths struck him high in the gut, dangerously near to his heart.
    He was beginning to hate Captain Doom almost as much as the Admiral did.
    “How dare he? Have you ever heard of such boldness? Such unmitigated gall?” The Admiral slammed the goblet down.
    Unsure of whether he was saving Lucy from her father or himself, Gerard snatched the paper out of her hands, jarring her face back to its haughty cast.
    He scanned the rest of the article, his temper growing grimmer with each word he read. “Rascal’s getting damned reckless, if you ask me. He’s liable to get his fool neck stretched if he pulls any more stunts like this one.”
    “I’ll drink to that!” The Admiral hefted the goblet.
    Lucy shot Gerard a triumphant glance. “But don’t you see, Father? If Doom is on the high seas, then there’s really no reason to—”
    “—relax our guard,” Gerard finished neatly, ignoring Lucy’s murderous glare. “A rogue like Doom probably has minions scattered all over England. What better time to execute an abduction than when blessed with an alibi provided by the entire crew of a Royal Navy frigate?”
    “Quite right, sir,” the Admiral concurred. “We must be more vigilant than ever.”
    Lucy snatched up a napkin, wringing it between her hands as if she wished it were his neck. But as her father polished off his water, his hands trembling visibly,her sullen expression melted to one