The Duke and I
Sometimes when a person has money and all the luxuries of life, he is not thinking about marriage as the next important thing in his life. He starts enjoying freedom and he thinks of the marriage bond as a restriction on his leisurely life. The issue is that society wants to see every rich man well settled in his personal life otherwise the gossips start and can be very damaging at times.
The same was the case with Simon Basset who was living a life full of joys and he thought that marrying a girl at such a point in time would be a bad decision on his side. Although several women in the society wanted to marry that eligible bachelor he was not in the mood to make a permanent relationship with anyone. In order to stop the gossip of the family circle, Simon makes a deal with Daphne who agrees to establish a fake relationship with Simon for a while.
Both Simon and Daphne were in need of something which they could provide to each other. Simon was trying to get rid of the gossip attached to his name and Daphne wanted some connections in the upper class so that she can finally find a rich suitor for herself. The writer of this novel, Julia Quinn has not tried to talk about true love anywhere in the introduction section. Rosalyn Landor also focuses on narrating the lusty nature of Simon in the beginning.
The Viscount Who Loved Me kind of story appears when the two main characters come close during the parties. They knew that they were going in the wrong direction and were breaking the bond too but nothing was in their control later on. Romancing Mister Bridgerton started to love very quickly but here everything takes time before the thing finally gets heated.