LN Cronan

One other possibility -- Gideon dumped Corrine early in Entwined, then called Corrine's estranged husband to assure him that as far as he (Gideon) is concerned, he's done with Corrine period. He's "finished" business with her forever. In fact, he plans to have no more contact, period, with her. Gideon could spin it in a positive way to the husband by explaining he (Gideon) is forever out of the picture, so the way is clear for the husband to try to save his own marriage.

 See page 330 of Bared to You (which happens to be in Chapter 22 - the read-a-chapter-a-day one we're on right now). In it, Gideon explained some important stuff to Eva about justifying his present-day friendship with Corrine.  Gideon felt guilty about being the cause of Corrine's marriage falling apart. He knew Corrine's husband in the past, and he liked the guy a lot. And Gideon figured out the reason the Grioux's marriage fell to pieces was her husband finally figured out Corrine wasn't in love with him, because all along she'd remained in love with Gideon.  This is the guilt that Corrine had been playing to in order to get Gideon to be an "old friend" as she (Corrine) has been going through a rough time. When Eva told him he needed to start cutting off contact with Corrine, he refused to do so, because he thought it would be cruel, given that Corrine's in crisis.  Has Gideon been in contact with Corrine's estranged husband, trying to help reconcile the pair? At least assuring Giroux that contrary to what the media is screaming about -- Gideon and Corrine Back Together Again!!!! -- fact of the matter is Gideon does not love Corrine and has no intention whatsoever of marrying her.

No, no -- the cover red color showed that's an ordinary French citizen's passport.  With United States passports, a red cover means something other than ordinary passport, which is why I checked -- lest the U.S. fans read something incorrect into the color of the passport cover. Here in the U.S., those of us who know people who work overseas, especially serving in the military, would interpret a red cover as meaning government business, not ordinary citizen. Many of us know people who bear red passport covers instead of the usual blue or green.

I hope this does not mean that Gideon has still been forced to continue dating Corrine all the way into Chapter 17, because it's too dangerous to simply "dump her" without good reason. Corrine's husband showing up to "get her back" gives the good reason why Gideon and Corrine "break up" in a way that the cops cannot plausibly use against Gideon as evidence to prove their suspicion his relationship with Corrine had been an elaborate lie all along.

By the way, I did Google to check whether the color of the passport cover means anything special. The French one here has a Bordeaux-red front cover -- it means it is an ordinary passport. Â I checked, because in the United States, a red passport cover means something other than ordinary. Red passport covers mean the bearer is overseas on U.S. government business, such as serving in the military or working for a government agency. Ordinary U.S. passport covers are usually blue (but sometimes green). Black passport covers are for diplomats -- anyone with a black passport cover is protected by diplomatic immunity, something the other sorts of passports don't entail.

French passport -- Corrine going back to France? Her estranged husband is French, and she'd lived overseas after she left Gideon and married Giroux on the rebound.

Snapshot #17 just went up - it's a French passport. Â Here's the link:Â http://www.sylviaday.com/2013/05/14/entwined-snapshot-17/

Or even, maybe by the time Eva was 10 years old and Nathan was 12 years old, Nathan was appointed to babysit Eva. Age 12 is around the neighborhood of when kids are old enough to be responsible for younger siblings, and is around the age that kids (especially girls) will start earning money by being babysitters. I myself started babysitting at age 12.

Re: Geoffrey Cross' suicide, I wonder whether Cross blew his head off at home, that Gideon (only five years old at the time and likely home himself) heard the shot, and ran to investigate -- and saw his dead body. This might explain what Gideon was a hot mess even before getting sexually assaulted. Perhaps the first childhood trauma he suffered wasn't simply the loss of a parent at a young age, that what happened was far, far more complicated and much worse. Â Re: Monica, in Eva's nightmares, she's cried out for her mother and said stuff like "where's Mama." I wonder whether Monica was so into going to high society functions very often that Eva and Nathan were left home barely supervised by servants or a babysitter. Perhaps every time Nathan knew Monica and his father would be out very late, he took the opportunity to rape Eva?

 He'd left his sleep medication upstairs -- Dr. Petersen had prescribed it the day before (Tuesday) and Gideon had stayed over Tuesday night, so his bottle of meds was still upstairs in her apartment.

Additional thoughts: Â In Chapter 21 comes the second time Gideon has threatened to spank Eva. He meant it in jest. The first time was the week they'd met and he was trying (in vain) to seduce her. He'd telephoned her at her office, and she'd seriously provoked him by being flippant - the spanking threat came when she managed to insult him to the point of making him mad, so he was more than half serious about it. Â Did Gideon experiment with BDSM in the past? Specifically spend the first three years of his sex life, which would have been exclusively with Corrine, explore BDSM as a possible means to get the ultimate control in the bedroom (well, in the hotel room). For one thing, a hotel room gave greater privacy than a dorm room (the likely place the 18-year-old, just-left-home, Gideon would be living as a college freshman.) Â Earlier this week, when we first discussed Chapter 20, I had pointed out Corrine's nervous gesture of stroking her throat as she was spilling stuff to Eva about Gideon's past possessive nature frightening her years ago. Even Eva thought the throat stroking gesture was odd, and it made Eva think Corrine was imaging a necklace "she'd normally find there." Did Gideon "collar" Corrine, getting her to wear a sexual fetish collar, one of the props commonly used on the submissive in a BDSM situation? Gideon once expressed a fantasy to Eva of putting Eva in a sex swing, which is bondage prop. He did stock sex toys in his f*** pad -- Eva looked only into one drawer, finding things such as vibrators. She was afraid to look in additional drawers, fearing she'd find more stuff. Was her gut feeling right that if she did look, she'd find props for more specific types of fetishes? Gideon made Eva choose a safeword -- that is a crucial thing in dom-sub sex, especially in situations that involve restraint and/or administering pain. It's the means by which the sex acts the dom is performing remain consensual to the sub -- the safeword is the way the sub conveys the dom is approaching or crossing a line into non-consensual, so the dom immediately needs to stop what the dom is doing to the sub. From her group therapy back in San Diego, Eva knew some things about BDSM (hearing other patients discuss it) and when Gideon asked her to pick a safword, Eva's mind flew to what she knew about the lifestyle. Soon after, when Gideon openly discussed the dom-sub dynamic, he rattled off certain things he did NOT mean he wanted to incorporate into their sex life. Some of the things he described were a menu of different BDSM activities. Â In Chapter 20 of Bared to You, Gideon tried making clear that with Corrine, it'd always been f******, never making love. Was the full truth of the matter it was always Gideon using kinkiness to explore his own sexuality, taking pleasure but never giving it to Corrine, not really. Their entire sex life was mostly him taking but not giving back -- and that's the real reason Corrine tried to change him? The deal-breaker issue going on was far deeper than his refusal to fall asleep alongside her? Â If this is true, then it could help to make sense of why when Gideon started seeing Corrine again, in Reflected in You, that during the two-plus weeks he'd "gone back" to Corrine, they didn't immediately become sexual partners again, as would be expected under the circumstances? Why she might be willing to let that coast for now? Fearing that if she pushed matters, it'd go right back to wearing a collar and being spanked? Corrine probably heard from Magdalene all about Magdalene having walked in on Gideon making love to Eva in his parents library. So Corrine was holding out in order to be patient enough with Gideon that when Gideon did take their renewed relationship to a sexual level, it would involve lovemaking? (Yeah, right Corrine -- good luck with that!)

Favorite line in Chapter 21: Â "Eva, if you don't stop thinking of us as temporary, I'm going to take you over my knee and make d*** sure you like it."

Chapter A Day Re-Read Project  - Chapter Twenty Two of Bared to You  This chapter continues Wednesday evening (day 17)  Key plot developments: In the prior chapter, after finally calming Eva down, Gideon told her the truth about his past relationship with Corrine. In this, the final chapter of Bared to You, they wrap up the talk by discussing Corrine's recently-renewed contact with Gideon. Gideon admits he does feel guilty Corrine still loves him, because he knows he indirectly was responsible for her marriage falling apart. Eva tells Gideon that Corrine is still going to be a problem for her, and she asks him to start weaning Corrine off. In response, Gideon claims it would be cruel to cut Corrine off when she's going through a hard time. Eva warns Gideon that she herself has exes --- and so his behavior (being friends with Corrine) could set a precedent for how Eva might handle exes of her own.  So today, the group re-read project has reached the end of Bared. We start tackling Reflected in You tomorrow!  After each of us is finished with this chapter, Sylvia would like us to post a favorite quote or paragraph.

 Chapter Twenty One of Bared to You - The Readers Guide  This chapter continues Wednesday evening (day 17)  Key plot developments: Eva, angry Gideon lied about who Corrine really was, told him she was leaving immediately. He got mad because he thought she was her over-reacting. He took her out to the limo to try to settle the argument by making love to her, his way of trying to reassure her she's the only woman he wants. But when they returned to the fundraiser, Gideon made matters much worse by talking only to Corrine throughout the entire meal, ignoring Eva sitting on his other side. At the end of dinner, Eva tried to leave the table, because the dinner companion who had kept her company, Dr. Terry Lucas, invited her to go to the bar with him. Her attempt to leave finally tore Gideon's attention away from Corrine. When Gideon saw Eva was going off with Lucas, Gideon ordered Eva to stay put, and he restrained Eva by keeping a tight grip on her hand. Fed up, Eva pulled a runner and went home -- arriving to a sex orgy in progress in the living room. Cary, who'd thought she wasn't coming home at all that night, had invited over three people for a wild time. Gideon caught up with Eva -- and he finally did the right thing by being honest. He recounted the true nature of his history with Corrine.  New characters: Dr. Terry Lucas Minor: two women and one man Cary had as guests in his/Eva's apartment.  Timeline of events in this chapter regarding the Fundraiser Fiasco - part two Part one left off with Eva finding out Gideon had dumped her in order to answer urgent phone calls from Corrine the night of Eva and Gideon's first date. With that revelation, Eva walked away from Corrine (and Magdalene) sitting at the table and marched off to find Gideon in the bar. There she angrily confronted Gideon, pounded down a double cocktail and then announced she was leaving. He figured out she'd learned what he tried to hide about Corrine. But he got mad because he thought Eva was over-reacting about something that meant "nothing" and was trying to leave the event when he needed to stay. "Nothing .... I warned you I get upset and jealous. This time, you've given me good reason." Page 316. To demonstrate it was Eva, not Corrine, he wanted, Gideon dragged her out to the limo. He had Angus keep driving them around the block while in the back, he made love to Eva. This time, he was in control, and she willingly surrendered, reassured very briefly by sex that was good for both of them. Reassurance he then utterly ruined after they returned to the event and sat down to dinner. He spent the meal seated between Eva and Corrine -- and spent the whole time talking to Corrine, ignoring Eva aside from holding Eva's hand under the table. On Eva's other side was a man who introduced himself as Dr. Terry Lucas. Lucas kept her company during the meal, and then invited her to go with him to the bar for an after dinner drink. (Only much later in Reflected would we readers learn Lucas and Gideon hate one another's guts -- and in the past, Gideon had deliberately sexually used Lucas' wife for revenge purposes.) Eva's move to leave the table finally caught Gideon's attention - and he saw she was about to go off with Lucas. Gideon ordered her to stay and told Lucas to back off. Lucas embarrassed Gideon in front of everyone by pointing out the truth -- he'd ignored Eva for Corrine the entire meal. Eva slammed Gideon by agreeing Lucas was right. Then Lucas escalated things by trying to turn Eva against Gideon, telling Eva she doesn't have to tolerate Gideon trying to order her around.  Eva, now infuriated and embarrassed, made Gideon quit physically restraining her from leaving the table  - she used her sexual safeword "Crossfire" to force him to let go of her hand. She then immediately left Gideon, Lucas and Corrine behind at the table, pulling a runner.  What unfolded after Eva fled the fundraiser and went home Cary thought Eva wasn't coming home that night, so he invited over three guests for group sex -- two women and one man. Eva walked in on an orgy in progress in the middle of her living room. Angrily, she ordered Cary's guests to leave immediately.  The other man besides Cary, high on drugs, propositioned Eva to join them, and over Cary's protests, started to actually approach her. Gideon arrived at that moment, having chased Eva home. He punched the guy about to put his hands on Eva. That ended the night's "festivities" with Cary's guests leaving immediately. Cary retreated to his bedroom, and Eva fled to hers, straight into her private bathroom, where she curled up in misery in the shower. Gideon followed her there. She repeatedly told him to leave, not wanting to listen to him, still too upset and triggered by him and Corrine. Gideon told her "I love you Eva. Of course I do," -- the first time he's said that to Eva. But under the circumstances, it made her even more upset, because she felt it meant nothing more than him pitying her. Finally, though, by continuing to profess his love, Gideon finally calmed Eva down enough so she'd listen to him. "I think I loved you the moment I saw you. Then we made love that first time in the limo and it became something else. Something more." (pages 326-327)   What Gideon told Eva - the truth about his past and present connection with Corrine He apologized for having left Eva that night to help Corrine. By way of excuse, he explained that he had been reeling at the time, Corrine was in a lot of pain when she called --  and Gideon thought he needed to deal with Corrine so that he could then move forward with Eva. Gideon then explained his history with Corrine: He'd met Corrine his freshman year at Columbia University - a beautiful and sweet person who ended up pursuing him. He let himself be caught and seduced. Corrine became his first lover. They remained sexually exclusive, and they went places as a couple. He considered it dating, but was surprised she told him it was love -- and she asked him to marry her. He accepted her marriage proposal, because he thought he might love her too in his own way, and he didn't want her to be with any other man. But he soon realized those were the wrong reasons for saying yes. The truth of their relationship was they hung out together in public, and in private, they f***** in a hotel room used only for sex. To Gideon, the physical relationship was just about sex, never about making love. Gideon suspected Corrine's reason for moving their relationship from dating to engaged was an attempt to get him to open up and to start spending the night with her. She never knew the reason why he wouldn't sleep alongside her -- his nightmares. One year into the engagement, she tried to up the ante by ending it, hoping the fear of losing her would finally make him fight for the relationship, which still hadn't moved beyond hotel trysts and social dating. He was relieved she ended it, because he couldn't marry her anyway. It would involve sharing a home, something that would make it impossible to keep the nightmares a secret.

Tuesday - which means we're getting a snapshot today, probably at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time based on when all the other ones thus far have hit the Internet. Â Today will be a glimpse into Chapter 17. Recap of the snapshots of chapters 1-16: Â 1. The word "Press" over a fuzzy shot of a newspaper page, and a fancy pen in the foreground. 2. Unwrapped Christmas present boxes 3. The word "Business" next to a cup of coffee 4. A microphone on a stand 5. A pile of neatly-folded white terrycloth towels, wrapped in a red ribbon. 6. A bathtub in a modern-style bathroom 7. An open bottle of red wine, nearly full, and in front of it, one wine glass holding some wine. Near it is a small vase holding four red roses. 8. Two different types of pills in blister packs plus a bottle of some sort of liquid medication. The meds are on a glass coffee table in front of a white couch. 9. Fuzzy shot of a crowded dance floor. One woman in the center of the shot is in semi-focus. 10. A diamond and gold women's watch. 11. An Aston Martin sports car 12. * NEW - A vase of white roses with a card that says "Happy" (can't see what) and signed xoxoxoxo. This was newly-substituted last week from the original shot, of an elevator bank. 13. Pieces of women's clothing scattered at the foot of a bed. 14. An NYPD detective shield (badge). 15. A man's hand grasping a bed sheet 16. A set of stairs or bleacher seats (in Times Square?)

 Hi Rouge!! Another reader-turned-poster, SQUEEEEEE!!!  Gideon does best communicate to Eva through sex, because it's the one way he has figured out how to communicate in a relationship. Now if our hero could only learn how to communicate with his clothes on! Take a cue from Eva, who's a different person with her clothes on ("completely unmanageable" is what he thinks, but what the truth of the matter is that he's seeing glimpses of New Eva).  Because just like he has sometimes screwed up outside the bedroom, he's screwed up with sex too -- thinking getting her to come was the solution to whatever was bothering her. His attempted "fix" to her freaking out about Corrine was to drag Eva out to his limo and f*** the anxiety out of her. What he ought to have done was leave immediately with her and gone somewhere quiet for an honest talk. Then there was the time he used sex to punish her right after Brett. Perhaps worst of all was making love to her in the middle of the night during the week he's started mistreating her as part of the preparations to kill Nathan. That middle-of-the-night lovemaking only made her more confused, and it came across to even Cary as a mercy f***. Which on one level, it was.  Thoughts on the first time they made love in Entwined There was an equal exchange of power there - signal there would be more relationship equality outside the bedroom? His knowing that moving forward, he needs to be even more careful with her, body and soul -- he doesn't want her to ever fear him? I'm sure he had to keep tight reign on himself, starved for her, lest he tear her apart (her too - she was just as wild by then.)

 No, you're got it right -- the mixer was his alibi. It was part of him attempting to prove where he'd been Thursday. He couldn't have been the one who went to Nathan's hotel to kill him, so it must have been someone else. Gideon could prove he'd been elsewhere, so he didn't have the opportunity to do the crime.  Corrine wasn't his alibi, because she wasn't the only person there. There were lots of other people there, and even a press photographer who took a picture of him at the party.  Corrine served a purpose other than alibi. She made it believable that Gideon dumped Eva back while Nathan was still very much alive. The Corrine cover story was to protect Gideon from motive for wanting to kill Nathan. An alibi protects from opportunity to have actually been able to do the deed.  I hope that makes sense. "Opportunity" and "motive" are two different legal things, but a prosecutor needs to prove both of them.

 I signed up late last week, and the prompt box was there then. But I didn't fill it in at the time. When I tried going back today, I couldn't get the prompt box back.  Ah well. I'm going to be too busy taking notes anyway.  I sure you ladies will have excellent questions!

 Kirsten, did you get to submit a question? I spent all weekend deciding which one -- and found this morning that I couldn't post a question anymore. Agh!!!

 In Chapter 20, he was ticked off that Eva danced with Stanton's nephew -- practically family (by marriage.) Gideon cut in on their dance. But then when Eva confronted him about having just found out -- from Magdalene and Corrine herself -- that Corrine sure as h*** wasn't just an old friend, he got mad she was making a fuss over "nothing."  The man really can be an idiot sometimes. He just didn't get it -- well, he finally did, when he saw Eva in Brett's arms.

 No, I don't think he would have. I think his original plan for the night was to have a wonderful time with Eva at the fundraiser and then take her to the hotel afterward, where he'd get her naked but for that diamond ankle bracelet.  The headtrip he was on definitely contributed to him being stupid enough to add insult to injury by leaving early. In his defense, he did tell Corrine right away, when he finally talked to her that night, that he had met someone. It's why she ended up cancelling the flight she was already booked to take -- she chickened out. It took her another week or so to work up the courage to go chasing after Gideon herself.  I'm guessing Gideon had already started coming off the headtrip by the time he got on the phone with Corrine so she could cry to him and ask him to help her. Gideon probably felt rotten about Eva's parting words to him (his speech had been the highlight of her evening). And dumb as he was about women, he wasn't so stupid as to not known he screwed up. Next day, he sent her roses by Sunday delivery, and he tried everything he could to get her on the telephone. Good for her avoiding the phone. She was still very hurt and wasn't ready to deal with his s*** so she didn't even go there.

 Gideon most likely would be wearing a black T-shirt and either sweats or black jeans (if he's been sneaking around incognito, disguising his appearance so he looks like some 20-something - a hot 20-something, but not anyone powerful.)  When he's in billionaire mogul mode, the captain of Cross Industries, he favors black and dark gray power suits. If he wears any sort of color, it's usually blue. I can't see him in a green shirt.

I'm thinking Christopher may have narcissistic personality disorder:   A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia. Narcissistic personality disorder Narcissistic personality disorder is a condition in which people have an excessive sense of self-importance, an extreme preoccupation with themselves, and lack of empathy for others. Causes, incidence, and risk factors Cause of this disorder is unknown. Early life experiences, such as particularly insensitive parenting, are thought to play a role in the development of this disorder. Symptoms A person with narcissistic personality disorder may: React to criticism with rage, shame, or humiliation Take advantage of other people to achieve his or her own goals Have excessive feelings of self-importance Exaggerate achievements and talents Be preoccupied with fantasies of success, power, beauty, intelligence, or ideal love Have unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment Need constant attention and admiration Disregard the feelings of others, and have little ability to feel empathy Have obsessive self-interest Pursue mainly selfish goals

Based on height, that's definitely Eva (Sylvia told us Eva's around 5'6".  Possibly Victor? Based on the green shirt (i.e. casual, not a dark suit) and the height -- plus, I don't think the hair is long enough to be Gideon. The guy's hand gestures could indicate being upset. The physical closeness could indicate a hug is about to happen.

 Actually, the cop wanted to cite them for public indecency, based on Eva straddling Gideon's lap, Gideon running his hands all over Eva, the pair of them visible through the windshield (they were in the driver's seat). They were pulled over, not blocking traffic. The cop let them off with a warning instead - telling them to knock it off and move on. (Page 321). The cop may have run the license plate.