Excerpt of The Venetian's Midnight Mistress by Carole Mortimer

Dani was feeling hot and bothered by the time she arrived
very late—it was well after ten o'clock—to Eleni's
masquerade party.

A problem with a client had come up at the last moment,
delaying her in getting ready. Then, when the taxi had
arrived to drive her here, she'd realised she had another
problem. It was an extremely warm evening, and her gown was
made out of soft gold and very heavy velvet, and the hoops
beneath the skirts kept springing up and almost hitting her
in the face.

How on earth, Dani wondered wrathfully, had women ever
managed to move around in these clothes two hundred and
fifty years ago, let alone eat or drink in them?

Dani gave her cloak to Jamieson the butler after being
admitted to the house, before moving to the mirror in the
hallway to check her appearance. The gold mask she wore
covered her face from brow to top lip, and her red hair was
covered with the white powder that had been the fashion of
those days. The low neckline of the gold gown showed an
expanse of breasts pushed up to a creamy swell by a corset,
which also held her waist nipped in tightly, and the full
skirt billowed out and over the gold slippers that matched
the dress.

Yes, she was as ready as she was ever going to be to face
all the other guests, who were already outside in the
romantically lit garden.

Eleni had telephoned Dani yesterday so that she could tell
her all about her plans for the masquerade party. The garden
was to be lit only by lamps and strings of coloured lights
in the trees and bushes, with a small orchestra hired to add
to the romance of the evening. But even so Dani was totally
unprepared for the magical appearance of everything and
everyone when she stepped outside on her way to the rose
garden where Jamieson had told her Brad and Eleni were
greeting their guests.

The costumes of the two hundred or so guests were exquisite,
and the masks even more so—a lot of them intricately
decorated, especially those worn by Eleni's Venetian
relatives—giving Dani a feeling of unreality, as if she
really had stepped back into another time.

It was easy to see how and why, with so many corners of the
spacious garden left in darkness, those flirtations Eleni
had spoken of took place!

Dani quickly made her way to the rose garden, keeping a wary
eye out for Eleni's obnoxious brother—a man she thankfully
hadn't seen in the eight months since Eleni and Brad's
wedding, an occasion when they had all but ignored each other.

‘Is that you, Dani?' Eleni greeted her warmly as soon as she
saw her, her own Georgian-style costume an elegant red, her
mask silver and her dark hair unpowdered.

‘You aren't supposed to know it's me.' Dani frowned behind
her mask.

‘We discussed these dresses once—don't you remember?' her
friend said as Dani moved to kiss a
Duke-of-Wellington-costumed Brad.

As it happened, Dani did remember the time she and Eleni had
lain under an oak tree in the school grounds, waxing lyrical
about how romantic it must have been to live in the
seventeen hundreds, with all those manly heroes from the
historical novels they'd devoured. Until they had remembered
that there had been no plumbing for instant hot baths in
those times, nor the convenience of the telephone!

But like Eleni, Dani hadn't been able to resist wearing a
beautiful gown in the style of that century this evening.

‘You both look very beautiful,' Brad told them gallantly.

He was nothing like those dark, almost satanic heroes Dani
and Eleni had once drooled over, with his hair a golden
blond and his eyes blue, but there was no doubting the
happiness of Eleni and Brad's marriage, Dani recognised
almost wistfully, as Brad turned to give his wife a
lingering kiss.

‘Just tell me what Niccolo is wearing so that I can once
again avoid him!' Dani begged of her friend as she realised
she was holding up the receiving line.

‘He's a p—'

‘Just think of the D'Alessandro ancestry and you'll know
him,' Eleni cut smoothly across Brad. ‘And you see all those
good-looking men gathered by the bar?' She nodded towards
five men laughing and talking together as they sipped
champagne. ‘D'Alessandros every one,' she said with
satisfaction. ‘You met them all at the wedding last year and
I'm sure that any one of them would be pleased to oblige
you, if you know what I mean…?'

‘Very funny.' Dani shot her friend a silencing glare before
moving off to join the rest of the guests strolling in the
garden, knowing exactly what her friend was referring to
even if Brad didn't. In the eight months since she had
spoken to Eleni about her grandfather's will, Dani hadn't
even come close to finding a solution to that particular
problem.

But Eleni was right about the D'Alessandro men all being
good-looking, Dani acknowledged ruefully as she stood a
short distance away from them. All of them were dark-haired,
very tall, with athletically fit bodies. In fact any one of
them could be Niccolo, she realised in dismay.

One was dressed as a nobleman. Another as a priest. The
third as a gondolier. The fourth was a nineteenth-century
Italian soldier. The fifth was in Regency-style clothes.

Exactly what had Eleni meant by her cryptic comment about
the D'Alessandro ancestry in reference to Niccolo's costume?

‘Champagne…?'

She turned to find a rakish-looking pirate standing at her side—another one of Eleni's D'Alessandro cousins? This man's dark hair was pulled back and tied with a black bow at his nape, and a black mask covered his face from brow to top lip. Tight black trousers were tucked into black boots, emphasising the long length of his legs, a black sash was about his waist, and a long black leather tunic was worn over the white billowy shirt that was de rigueur for any respectable pirate.

Except pirates weren't respectable by definition, were they?

This one certainly didn't look as if he was. Dark, dark eyes
glittered through the slits in the mask as his gaze roamed
boldly over Dani, from her toes to her powdered hair and
then back to her face behind the gold mask.

‘Champagne…?' he prompted again huskily, and he held out one
of the two glasses he held in his hands.

Dani swallowed hard, not taking her gaze off the pirate for
even a second. It was one thing to fantasise about meeting a
man like this when you were an impressionable teenager.
Another thing altogether, at the age of twenty-four, to find
yourself face to face with a man who looked as if he were
every bit as dangerous as the pirate he was dressed as.

Which meant he definitely had to be a D'Alessandro cousin!

Still, it was a masquerade party, where no names were
exchanged and there would be no expectations after tonight.
Eleni was right; it could be fun for Dani to just
anonymously enjoy herself for one evening.

Until ten minutes ago Niccolo had been finding the evening
tedious. Conversation became louder as bottles of champagne
began to disappear, the laughter too shrill, the flirtations
more obvious—and the culmination of those flirtations was
obvious as couples began to disappear off into the darkness
of the garden.

But Niccolo had never particularly enjoyed the Venetian
Festival, and he certainly had no intention of being lured
into the privacy of the surrounding trees by any of the
women who had so far tried to tempt him.

As usual, he had kept a wary eye out for the sharp-tongued
Daniella Bell as each of the female guests had arrived, but
at ten o'clock he had assumed that she either wasn't here at
all or he had missed her in the crowd.

In fact, until he had seen the woman in the gold gown enter
the garden, he had been considering taking a bottle of
champagne and disappearing into the relative privacy of
Eleni's conservatory.

The woman's hair was powdered white, and she had a
heart-shaped beauty mark above her top lip. The creamy swell
of her breasts was inviting above the low neckline of the
gold gown, and her arms were white and slender, a gold fan
held in one of her delicately graceful hands.

Her very stillness made her stand out from the rest of the
guests as she looked slowly about her with an almost
untouchable air of separation from those about her.

It was a feeling Niccolo easily recognised and related to.
As head of the D'Alessandro family and banking consortium he
had to keep himself apart out of necessity. The fact that he
hadn't yet found a woman suitable to become the D'Alessandro
bride only added to his aloofness.

But he put on hold his plan to disappear the moment he saw
the woman in the gold gown. Instead he collected two glasses
of champagne and made his way determinedly towards her
before any of the other men present sensed her air of
detachment and saw it as the same challenge he did.

She was even more alluring close up, her skin as pale as
milk. The colour of her eyes was not discernible behind the
mask in the poorly illuminated garden, but somehow Niccolo
thought they would be blue. Her perfect bow of a mouth was
highly erotic, with that heart-shaped beauty mark above the
fuller top lip, and Niccolo believed the hair beneath the
powder would probably be a rich burnished gold.

Dani felt slightly flustered by the intensity of that dark
gaze—not sure that encouraging this man by accepting a glass
of champagne would be a good idea. Although she had no doubt
that the more mischievous Eleni wouldn't have hesitated.

‘Thank you.' Her voice was husky as she took the glass of
champagne the pirate presented to her, not quite managing to
avoid touching the man's long, slender fingers as she did
so, and feeling something like an electric jolt up her arm
as her own fingers briefly made contact with his.

‘Our hostess has strictly forbidden us the use of our own
names,' he said with a wicked smile. ‘So, if you have no
objection, I would like to call you Belladonna.'

His voice was very deep and very sexy. Dani suddenly became
aware that she was slowly being seduced.

‘As in the poison?' she said pertly.

His teeth gleamed very white in the darkness as he grinned at her appreciatively. As in beautiful lady,' he corrected softly. ‘And you are very beautiful.'

Dani's smile widened at the compliment. ‘How can you
possibly tell?'

‘Would you really like me to tell you?'

Slowly being seduced? This man's intent had just gone up a couple of notches!

But it was fun, she realised with dawning wonder. More fun
than she'd had in a very long time.

‘Yes, please,' she invited.

‘You have skin like white satin, a mouth that was surely
made for kissing, and breasts—'

‘I think perhaps you should stop there!' Had she thought
only a couple of notches? Make that a dozen or so! She was
starting to feel light-headed from all this flattery, and
she had only sipped at the champagne.

‘Perhaps for the moment…' He gave in gracefully with an
inclination of his head. ‘Would you care to dance?'

Would she? The idea certainly had its appeal. But who was this man? The dark hair, swarthy skin and slight accent gave no clue other than that he was probably a D'Alessandro relative. What if he should turn out—horror of horrors!—to be Niccolo D'Alessandro himself?

It would be just her luck, when they all removed their masks
at midnight, to discover she had spent the evening flirting
with Niccolo!

No, she realised with some relief as she glanced briefly
across at the other D'Alessandro men. They had just been
joined by a sixth man, even taller than they were and
dressed very lavishly, and his regal air of arrogance was
unmistakably that of Eleni's brother.

Dani relaxed slightly as she turned back to the pirate at
her side. And what do I call you?'

‘What would you like to call me?' he countered.

Dani felt a quiver of excitement down her spine as her body
was suffused with a heat that was in no way connected to the
warmth of this beautiful summer evening.

This really was a seductive experience, she thought. To be
complimented, enticed by a man she didn't know, and who
didn't know her, and whose attention seemed to be fixed
intensely on her. No wonder the Venetian Festival was so
popular!

She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, that
butterfly fluttering in her stomach increasing as she sensed
his dark gaze watching the movement.

‘Come, Bella, what is your fantasy? Tonight I will be
whoever you wish me to be.'

Dani hadn't even known she had a fantasy until now.
‘Morgan,' she breathed. ‘I would like to call you Morgan.'

‘After the pirate Henry Morgan?' the pirate said with a nod.
‘It is appropriate.'

Dani tilted her head. ‘Although I somehow think you must be
a relative of Eleni's…?'

He laughed. ‘No names. No personal details. Those are the
rules, are they not? Now, would you care to dance? Or
perhaps a walk in the garden would be more to your liking?'

Dani eyed the dozen or so couples moving slowly to the music
on the temporary dance floor that had been set up in front
of the small orchestra, tempted by the idea of being taken
in his arms—more than tempted. But did she really want to be
that close to a man who already made her feel like behaving
more recklessly than she ever had before?

For the moment, no…

A walk, I think,' she accepted, careful not to touch him
this time as he took the champagne glass from her and placed
both of them on the tray of a passing waiter.

Despite her care in not touching him, he immediately took
hold of her hand and placed it in the crook of his arm as
they strolled through the dimly lit garden. His arm felt
like tempered steel beneath her fingertips, the billowy
sleeves of his shirt hardly any barrier to the heat of his
skin at all.

Niccolo, sensing that his Belladonna was about to remove her
hand from his arm, moved to place his other hand over the
top of hers, determined not to relinquish this small contact
with her.

She was enchanting, tiny perfection, her hand small and
delicate beneath his much larger one, and the coloured
lanterns and the light of the moon threw the beauty of her
breasts and the bareness of her arms into shadowed relief.

He could never remember being this immediately attracted to
any woman before. The muted lighting and softly romantic
music no doubt added to the seduction of the evening, but
nevertheless Niccolo knew it was the intriguing air of
mystery that surrounded the woman at his side that gave such
enchantment to the meeting and held him captive.