“All right, well, there are really only three other things. First, I want anyone I spend time with in that manner to be unattached. Not that I’m the morality police, but things have gotten ugly once or twice when I didn’t realize that my companion was otherwise committed.” He snorted. “In fact, I developed that rule at the same time I developed the one about not going to other people’s houses. Or boats.”

She laughed. She had a low, melodic laugh. “This is the Depraved Duke origin story, isn’t it?”

“Daniela, have you been googling me again?” He was actually strangely, sharply pleased by the idea.

“Come on. If you were a commoner who suddenly found yourself friends with European nobility, you would be doing some googling, too.”

He was also strangely, sharply pleased that she had called him her friend.

“You, my friend”—he said it back because it was such a satisfying word—“Are anything but common. You are also about to hear a story nobody else knows.”

“Ooh. Hit me.”

“The so-called Depraved Duke incident was not what everyone thinks. It started when I met a woman at the Cannes Film Festival. She invited me to her yacht, and I accepted readily. Who doesn’t want to spend a day on a yacht in the French Mediterranean with a lovely, creative woman? She was a playwright.”

“You have a thing for artists.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“The painter in the other room?”

“Ah.” He considered her theory. “It’s more that I find people who make things interesting, especially things that make other people think, like plays or art or books.”

“But most people who make things like that are poor. I’m surprised a playwright can afford a yacht.”

“Ah, see. That is why you are going to do well when you decide to pull the trigger on your sex app. You’re smarter than I am. It turned out the playwright could not afford a yacht. Her hedge-fund-manager husband, who fancied himself a film producer, could.”

“Ah. You didn’t know she was married.”

“I did not. I assumed. Which I no longer do.”

“So, what? You make them sign an affidavit?”

“No. I merely ascertain their status and communicate that I am only interested in a singular encounter—that’s the next rule. I want to make sure they know what they’re getting.”

“They’re getting it once?”

“Well, perhaps not strictly once. I am very good at it, remember.” She snorted, and he laughed. “My point is more that I don’t want anyone thinking they can catch the baron. I don’t want to encourage husband-hunting fantasies.”

“Which is ironic because you are a baron in need of a wife.”

“Do you want to hear this story or not?”

“I do. I definitely do.”