LN Cronan

My theory is Angus had a hand in the killing itself, including helping to whisk Gideon away from the scene and dispose of the weapon while Gideon as quickly as possible went back to party hotel in order to continue maintaining his alibi. Thus Gideon has immediately crossed Angus of the list of people who tampered with evidence (stealing stuff from the crime scene to later plant on the gangster). Â Eva's gut says Angus, and I think Eva might be right, because Eva is a pretty intuitive woman (when not blinded by her raging insecurities). Eva figured out from the get-go that Gideon had to have f****** Deanna and treated Deanna coldly afterward -- that was precisely why Deanna was looking to hurt Gideon by enlisting another woman (Eva) who Gideon supposedly had used and then mistreated. Eva also figured out Corrine actually was crazy over Gideon -- literally crazy as in stalking him and being a nutjob. Eva figured that out during the sole rational conversation she had with Gideon about Corrine, the one where Gideon explained that Corrine had been calling him daily. Unfortunately, the next day the nooner stunt, and then Gideon's later "dating" Corrine convinced Eva that she (Eva) was the crazy one, crazy for ever thinking Gideon loved her (Eva). Eva's own severely triggered insecurities blinded her to the fact that Corrine was, all along, crazy.

A project I haven't gotten around to yet but plan to do shortly is count the number of Entwined chapters that do include sex scenes. Because a lot of them do

Yep, President Bill Clinton became infamous for his stupid rationalizations.  As a young man, he was offered a marijuana joint -- supposedly, he went through the motions but "didn't inhale" -- so technically he never did drugs. HAH!!! Puh-leeze. Not that trying marijuana is anything to be ashamed of.  But there was the more infamous insisting, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" that turned out to be a big, fat lie -- one that nearly cost him the Presidency. He got blow jobs from that intern -- and he found out the hard way that almost everyone DOES count oral sex as "sexual relations" instead of his own narrow definition of genital intercourse.  Our fantasy hero, Gideon, has got the same skewered view "I did not have sexual relations" with the women he put his talented fingers in, tongue on/in, used sex toys on .... whatever.  I wonder whether Gideon did count blow jobs, though -- given that his definition that if he did use is d*** on a woman, then it was getting laid.  HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Maybe Eva will get him a sex swing as a wedding gift ;) !!!!  "For the man who has everything" -- a present he really wants. It'd be like Christmas morning for sure!

 Oh I think it definitely was someone looking to protect Gideon -- and we'll ultimately learn who.  I found it odd that he'd supposedly asked Raul to start investigating the bracelet thing, not Angus.Â

 OMG, please tell me Tropical Storm Andrea didn't delay delivery of your book. Hurricane season getting wild so early is just sooooooo not fair. It's going to be a bad summer, I fear.

Mind you, I still think that the actual killing itself was mano a mano -- Gideon and Nathan alone in that room, with Gideon saying the actual words he later repeated in a nightmare -- Nathan wasn't ever going to touch Eva again. Â But it's obvious to me, too, that someone knew that very night what Gideon did -- someone who later entered the crime scene to get that bracelet plus stalker pictures of Eva from the collection Nathan had in the room (the cops later found all sorts of pictures in that room.)Â

 I too am interested in the details of exactly how Gideon pulled off the killing -- from how he got into Nathan's room to how he got away and disposed of the weapon. I've got some theories, including that he had help, but still no answers on precisely what went down.  I feel more than ever now, though, that Gideon did have an accomplice -- that is, had someone directly assisted him the night of the killing. And it was that accomplice who later returned to the crime scene without Gideon's knowledge -- taking the bracelet off Nathan's dead body and stealing stalking photos of Eva from the hotel room. That person then framed the gangster.  Clancy? As the brother of an FBI agent, it's possible for him to learn inside information about organized criminals. Angus? As former MI6, he likely had inside information about Russians.

 Oh I really liked the cuffs on the plane. Especially because it really was about the mental trust, not actual physical control. He didn't restrain Eva's hands -- all he did was put each soft cuff on her so that she was aware of wearing them. Other than that, what he had her do was the exact same thing she very eagerly did the first night she active submitted to him -- restrain her own hands by tightly gripping a bed pillow.  Methinks Mr. Cross is going to get his sex swing fantasy realized some time in the not too distant future

   The nightclub scene exceeded all expectations I had from the snippets. And Gideon talking dirty to Eva about the car got me all hot and bothered.  Of all the various hot, hot, HOT sex scenes in Entwined, my personal favorite was in Chapter 20 -- when Mrs. Cross showed up at her husband's office after hours, and he finally got to do some of the things involving that couch that he'd been fantasizing over since the very first time he'd ever sexually laid hands on Eva -- that early incident in his office when he was first trying (unsuccessfully at the time) to seduce Eva, the lunchtime when he got her onto her back and her skirt hiked up to her waist.  Very HAWT

Speaking of dom/sub, another theory I had that played itself out is the BDSM tendencies Gideon does have. His fantasy about a sex swing (expressed the first night they were a couple) plus his repeated threats to spank her (sometimes only half-joking) in both Bared and Reflected hinted at Mr. Cross having a taste for some BDSM. Â In Entwined, he actually began exploring bondage fantasies his bondage fantasies with Eva -- and though he's repeatedly (since Bared) threatened to spank her, he actually did do so in Entwined (once in a loving manner during that corner office encounter). And snapping her garter strap in a way that stung counts too, I think. Â He made clear when they first had the DS conversation about their sex life what he wasn't looking for -- some of the hardcore elements of BDSM. "You know I don't want to beat you, punish you, hurt you, demean you, or order you around like a pet. Those aren't needs either of us has." (Bared pages 247-48) Â What he does need -- as does she -- is to be trusted sexually. Exploring sexual elements that involve voluntary exchanges of physical and mental control, pushing boundaries doing so, is a very good thing for both of them. Â I still suspect he was less gentle with Corrine, because at that point in his life he likely was very closed off emotionally and very rigid sexually. Supposedly, the fact he wouldn't spend the night with her was the dealbreaker, but I suspect the truth underneath was that he never made love to her. She allowed herself to be used, so desperate was she to get inside his heart. In that respect, she had been similar to Eva back in Eva's bad-old-days of being willing to demean herself hoping that if she made a guy happy, he would love her.

Maybe she said yes because of what happened in the plane -- by lowering his ultimate sexual defenses and trusting her, he proved he was capable of being able to open up. Â His pattern of shutting her out, present from day one of their relationship, had been the real dealbreaker, not Corrine (Corrine was just the last straw.) When she did get back together with Gideon, she still (rightly so) was afraid he'd go back to shutting her out again, making it impossible for them to work out after all -- would have broken her heart all over again. Â He proved he is ready and able to change, and I think that's what made her finally ready to marry him.

   Me too -- he was a good leader -- despite the fact he had loose morals.

#WeCanBeTrusted (to be ethical about spoilers)

Brunette issue:  Sexual fetish originating from the fact the first consensual sex Gideon had?  OR .....  Oedipus complex triggered by Mommy's betrayal?   THE unanswered question for me still.

 By being best man, Angus definitely has become family.

 I am so happy my instinct was right that all along, Magdalene was (and still is) squarely on Team Gideon Deserves To Be Happy.  Once Magdalene figured out that she couldn't give Gideon what he needs to be happy but there was someone who most definitely could -- Eva -- that Magdalene started pulling for Eva.  I liked the fact Magdalene went to see Eva, she let slip the fact that Gideon was only friends with Corrine and even that wasn't working out. It was her way of trying to clear the Corrine obstacle.

 You and me both, Julie -- you and me both.  I absolutely adored Entwined in many ways -- for answering certain questions I had and for introducing an entire new set of questions for the forthcoming Book 4 and Book 5.  The only -- and I mean only -- disappointment for me was not getting an answer to that nagging brunette issue. AGHHHHH!!!!!  Please, please, PLEASE, Sylvia ..... tell us the real root of the finally-broken fixation? Was it a sexual fetish stemming from Gideon's first consensual experiences (i.e. Corrine) or was it a major Oedipus complex thing related to his mother?

 Well, Eva does have a bodyguard -- Angus -- thank goodness, to come between her and any potential bunny boilers.

 His overall number of partners obviously is much higher than her's, probably in the hundreds ...  BUT .... but actually he's the one with greater reason to freak out. Because with his partners, his you-know-what usually did NOT get into the act, but with Eva, many of her's involved her giving oral sex to guys. So much so that it even came up in the song Golden -- because that's what Eva did for Brett, drop down on her knees every chance she got.  Double standard? H.e.l.l. yeah -- but it is what it is. Eva had some sort of intercourse (genital-to-oral) with many of her hook-ups, while Gideon, for lack of a better term, went only as far as "third base" tops with the vast, vast majority of his.

If Gideon took women to his hotel on average twice per week, did something sexual with every single one of them, and (this is safe to say) acted like total a******* toward them immediately afterward, well that's a whole lot of potentially vengeful women running around New York.

It ticked me off (in a good way, meaning the story provoked emotion) that Gideon thought the hotel encounters didn't count as getting laid if he didn't .... um .... stick his d*** in a chick. Technically, he wasn't having sex if he was just getting some woman off with toys? Â This from a guy who freaked out over a French kiss between Eva and Brett. That kiss most definitely counted as intimate contact in Gideon's book (as well it should have -- passionate kissing is a sexual behavior). Also, every one of those one-sided encounters Eva engaged in back in her bad old days -- giving guys blow jobs -- does count too. Â So newsflash, Mr. Cross -- every one of those women you took to the hotel room do count as notches on your belt, whether or not you engaged in intercourse with them. You engaged in sexual activities, and so every one of those women counts in your own history.

 He understands now they're "in this together"

Eva's due to arrive in San Diego on Friday. On Friday, the tabloids and gossip blogs will be in a frenzy about the sensational news that broke less than 24 hours earlier: Gideon Cross is engaged -- to Eva Trammell, not Corrine Giroux. Accompanying the sensational news will be pictures of Gideon with Eva on the red carpet Thursday night. Â So I think Brett will finally "get it" that his chances of getting Eva back just went down considerably. However, unfortunately, I don't think he's going to give up yet. In Times Square, when he saw Gideon obviously pursuing Eva, and Eva reminding Brett she's in love with Gideon ... well Brett reacted by predicting, "I don't care. It's not going to work for you with him, and I'll be around, Eva." (page 238) Â He's going to be awfully suspicious of the "sudden engagement" too -- Gideon asks Eva to marry him soon after seeing Eva accompanying Brett to a high profile event in Times Square and then going out to dinner with Brett? I can't blame Brett for assuming Gideon's simply playing on Eva's jealousy. And Eva (bad, Eva, bad!!!!) is still giving poor Brett mixed messages. Â Until she quits sending the guy mixed messages, he'll never get it into his head that she's permanently committed to Gideon. Eva needs to cut Brett off completely.

 So excellent to have a expert here!!!  I personally knew one woman who wasn't aware until her 7th month. And this woman was a lawyer for Pete's sake, supposed to be smart!!! She was mildly obese and had food-related issues that caused her weight to fluctuate all her adult life, so the weight gain didn't clue her in. She also continued to sometimes "spot" during the pregnancy, and because she'd already had irregularities with her menstral cycle, she assumed it was simply "off."  Believe it or not, as her son's kicking increasingly got active, this woman feared she had something seriously wrong digestively going on, and so she saw her doctor. Surprise!!!! Thank God the couple was happy about the news -- her husband was thrilled beyond belief. He'd wanted to start having kids immediately. But she was fresh out a law school and wanted to get established professionally before becoming a parent.