Three years ago, Kieran Mullen was a carefree, confident beauty. One fateful night, everything changed, and she became solitary and aloof, reluctant to leave her London home even when her brother, Rogan, insists she accompany him on holiday to Venice. There, amid the wild revelries of Carnivale, Kieran is attacked by a masked villain and rescued by a charismatic stranger who offers her the one thing that might free her from her haunting past: revenge...Matteo de Gama is a study in contradiction - a gambler and a philosopher, a reckless libertine and a most unlikely saviour. When he pulls Kieran from a canal's watery depths and learns her secrets, he resolves to help her exact justice. But soon he has another mission in mind - to release the unmistakable fire buried beneath her icy beauty, and teach her the bliss that comes with trusting in her own desires, and in their fierce, abiding love...