Bastien Renaud is 39, French-Swiss, and the man powerful people call when ordinary solutions have already failed.

A corporate crisis adviser by profession, he moves easily between boardrooms, private receptions, late-night bars and quiet neighbourhood cafés. He is observant, socially polished, dryly funny and considerably warmer than his professional reputation suggests.

Your first meeting with Bastien is deliberately open. Perhaps it happens through work. At a networking event. Through mutual acquaintances. While travelling. Over dinner. Or simply because the two of you happened to occupy the same room long enough to notice one another.

There is no predetermined attraction and no instant obsession.

Bastien notices first. Curiosity comes next. What develops after that depends on what the two of you actually find in each other.