LN Cronan

I'm hoping he'll be finished at the end of Entwined hauling the skeletons out of his closet. An ugly stinking mess will be out in the daylight, sitting there in a pile, but the happy ending will be he knows he'll get better, Eva alongside him forever. He'll figure out that yes, some things in life broke him -- but he's not broken beyond repair.

 He'd resumed spiraling out of control again near the end of Reflected -- two days in a row, he did a very dangerous thing by approaching Eva in front of witnesses, including having lengthy contact with her the second day.  His whole stupid plan of pushing her away was insane to begin with, but he ought to have come out and asked her for a "break" in the relationship. Barring that, he ought to have cut off all contact as soon as he killed Nathan. He at last figured out he needed to by the weekend, because Detective Graves was already starting to suspect he still was in love with Eva.  For eight days, he managed to control himself, whatever the agony to himself. He had absolutely no contact whatsoever. But then the specter of Brett declaring publicly he and Eva had reconnected and he planned to woo her sent Gideon into a panic. He changed his tune from "trust me" to "wait."  I wonder whether the cop who spotted the pair of them looking practically indecent in the front seat of his Mercedes Tuesday morning ran the license plate -- and thus that tender-looked-like-sexual contact got back to Graves. Perhaps that's what triggered Graves approaching Eva on Wednesday evening, setting in motion Graves' plan to undo the lie Gideon left Eva.

 Bared to You and Reflected in You both ended in cliff-hangers, but good ones  End of Bared to You - Gideon managed to (at least for that night) lay to rest Eva's insecurities, by telling her the truth about his true past history with Corrine.  End of Reflected in You - Eva learned the truth about why Gideon pushed her away, and she ran back to him.

I think, Julie, that Victor is going to appear in Chapter 14 - that's the one somehow involving an NYPD detective. Possibility - Detective Graves pulling another one of her spill-the-beans, this time to Eva's father?

BTW, Sylvia confirmed on Twitter today that the Crossfire series definitely will run five books. She's been discussing that possibility for weeks, but her Tweet flat-out confirms that's the plan.

 The "spousal privilege" that prevents prosecutors from being able to force spouses to testify against one another does not automatically cover crimes committed before the pair got married. And in this case, it could make matters worse, by proving once and for all Gideon had every motive in the world to kill Nathan.  The case needs to go buh-bye first. My guess is that's going to happen midway through the book, with the prosecution realizing they haven't got enough evidence to get a conviction. They know Gideon did it, but they can't prove it beyond reasonable doubt to a jury. This is how, in real life, people "get away with murder."

 Other way around ....  In secret, Gideon's finally getting some again Meanwhile, Brett ain't ever gonna get to tap that again Â

 Unleash the hounds!!!!!

My favorite line in chapter 21 Â Gideon to Eva in the back of the limo: "I wish you knew what you do to me. I wish I could tell you." (page 319). Â Not happy that Eva pulled another one of her runners, but pleased she called Gideon on his s*** right to his face (and Corrine's) by agreeing Dr. Lucas had a point - Gideon had spent all dinner totally focused on Corrine and completely ignoring Eva. And I like that Eva calmly walked away from all three of them - the bickering two men and the trouble-making brunette. Gideon did NOT have any right to order Eva around -- and she was right to finally get fed up with Gideon that night. Â I only wish Eva had ordered Gideon to come with her so that the pair of them could have a private "word" together. Gideon's answer to everything was to try to use sex to soothe Eva. What he needed was some real communication -- and at that moment, one h*** of a chewing out for having screwed up big time.

 It is available for pre-order on audible.com -- which is owned by Amazon, by the way.  I prefer audible over iTunes for many reasons - larger selection, better prices (if one becomes a member) and greater versatility with the computer download. And audible DOES work on iPods. Don't fall for the mistaken believe that because your MP3 player is an iPod that you must buy all your music and audiobooks from iTunes alone. I buy all mine from audible and Amazon.

The club, I think -- based on the lighting (different colors), the thickness of the glass -- and we know from the snippets that Gideon and Eva meet at one of his clubs while he's dressed incognito. BTW, I think Gideon has long practice dressing incognito in order to thwart the paparazzi from following him day and night. Mr. Control Freak allows himself to be photographed only in circumstances he can control.

 Throwing out thoughts: The Times Square event is a music industry event - Vidal Records definitely is involved at the very least, and perhaps the event is solely organized by the label itself. Gideon, who owns the majority of the shares in the company, up to this point hasn't been very active in actual activities, but in recent weeks opted to get very involved, puzzling his own family as to why. Gideon's hidden motive is to be able to keep closer tabs on Six Ninths - especially Brett Kline. Gideon found out through Vidal Records that Brett would be at this event. But he didn't tell Eva -- because he's still so insecure, he doesn't want her to even know Brett's in New York. Gideon decided to attend the event himself, so he can literally keep an eye on Brett. Gideon's family is there, including Ireland, who gets to go to these events, just like she got included in the garden party PR event weeks ago. Gideon does not take Corrine with him. Perhaps he's already dumped her. Even if he hasn't, he doesn't want her near him when photographers might be roaming. Plus not having her there gives him more freedom to roam himself. Meanwhile, Eva's still keeping her head in the sand, so on her own she didn't know Brett was in town, much less that he'd be in Times Square. Cary, still up to his Brett mischief as would-be matchmaker, persuades Eva to go out with him to some Times Square event that Cary needs to attend for his own modeling career. Eva shows and finds out the hard way Vidal Records is part of the event. But she probably figures Gideon wouldn't be there, because he's blown off Vidal Records events in the past. So she agrees to stay. Cary goes off to "mingle" and he comes back with Brett in tow. Gideon cannot stop himself from approaching Eva.  And .....?

Chapter A Day Re-Read Project  - Chapter Twenty One of Bared to You  This chapter continues Wednesday evening (day 17)  Key plot developments: Eva, angry Gideon lied about who Corrine really was, told him she was leaving. He got mad because he thought Eva was over-reacting. He took her out to the limo to try to settle the matter by making love to her, his way of reassuring her she's the only woman he wants. But when they returned to the fundraiser, Gideon made matters worse by ignoring her in favor of Corrine. Then he tried to order Eva around when she decided to go for an after dinner drink with Dr. Terry Lucas. Fed up, Eva pulled a runner,  arriving home unexpectedly to a sex orgy Cary was hosting, thinking she wasn't coming home at all that night. Gideon came after Eva, and he finally did the right thing by being honest with Eva. He told her the true nature of his past with Corrine.

Chapter Twenty of Bared To You - The Readers Guide  This chapter runs Tuesday evening (day 16) through Wednesday evening (day 17)  Key plot developments: This chapter, a pivotal one in the in the Crossfire series thus far, starts unfolding the biggest crisis in Bared To You, a plot line that would continue to play itself out to the end of the novel and beyond into Reflected in You. Gideon's former fiancee, Corrine, crashed a fundraiser dinner Gideon and Eva attended, blindsiding both of them, and Eva would find out secrets Gideon kept from her (Eva) in a way that caused serious damage to Eva's trust in Gideon. The crisis happened Wednesday evening. Tuesday evening, Gideon had his first individual therapy session with Dr. Petersen, who formally diagnosed Gideon's condition that causes him to become sexually violent while still asleep. Gideon agreed to a course of treatment.  New characters: Corrine Giroux Martin Stanton (minor)  Timeline of events in this chapter regarding the Fundraiser Fiasco - part one Gideon and Eva attended a gala fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria, Eva looking especially stunning in a cocktail dress Gideon bought her for the occasion. When they first arrived, other people grabbed Gideon's attention, so Eva ended up dancing with Stanton's nephew, Martin. Gideon cut in, unhappy to see Eva with another man. The pair of them danced. As they came off the dance floor, Eva spotted Magdalene talking Corrine. Then Corrine spotted Gideon, and the look on her face showed she was deeply in love with him. Gideon, taken off guard that Corrine was present, introduced Eva to her, lying by omission that Corrine was simply an old friend. Eva found it necessary to explain she (Eva) was Gideon's girlfriend, not just another female friend of his. Corrine manufactured an excuse to immediately draw Gideon away from Eva's side. Needing to talk to Corrine in order to try to take control of the situation, he went with her. While Gideon was off with Corrine, Magdalene told Eva the truth - Corrine was Gideon's former fiancee, who had left him. Soon Gideon returned with Corrine, then left her briefly with Eva and Magdalene while he went to talk with someone. Corrine seized on the opportunity to discuss her "friendship" with Gideon. Upon learning Eva knew Corrine's true status of ex-fiancee, Corrine admitted she was still in love with Gideon. Thanks to Corrine, Eva found out an awful truth - the reason Gideon had dumped her (Eva) the night of their first date was to respond to urgent phone calls from Corrine.  What Magdalene told Eva - the past connection between Corrine and Gideon Corrine and Gideon had been engaged for more than a year (how long ago this was, Eva wasn't told). Corrine broke the engagement, married a wealthy Frenchman and moved to Europe. Corrine is now getting divorced, and she's moved back to New York. Acting miserable, Magdalene termed Corrine "the one who got away" and admitted that now Corrine's back, Magdalene has given up on ever having Gideon for herself. Magdalene confessed she had spent years trying to replace Corrine, even wearing her own brunette hair waist length like Corrine does, hoping this would make her more attractive to Gideon. Magdalene also admitted to Eva she can see now that Eva loves Gideon -- and Magdalene apologized for how badly she treated Eva the night she and Eva met.  What Corrine told Eva - the present connection between her and Gideon Corrine said she and Gideon talk on the telephone daily and that he had told her (Corrine) a lot about Eva. She thanked Eva for getting Gideon to start to open up. When asked point blank by Eva, Corrine admitted she is still in love with him. She said the biggest mistake she ever made was to walk away from him. She gave the reason for leaving as being afraid of his possessiveness at the time, but in hindsight she recognized his possessiveness showed he cared. Corrine confessed she initially was afraid to come back to New York to face Gideon and Eva as a couple -- so nervous that she delayed her return to New York. Two weekends prior, she was all set to fly to New York, but she ended up cancelling the flight.  It turned out that the night she'd originally planned to hop on a plane, she called Gideon in crisis to tell him she was coming. She reached him by phone in the middle of a fundraiser. He called her back soon after in order to talk -- including telling Corrine he'd met someone (Eva). Eva connected the dots: the night Corrine reached out to Gideon for help to leave Europe for New York, he dropped everything to tend to Corrine's needs. What he dropped was Eva - ditched her at the end of their disastrous first date in order to leave early and alone. It had been the final insult to his having treated her so coldly immediately after Eva had made love to Gideon for the first time. This revelation -- Gideon chose Corrine over Eva that night -- devastated Eva. The damage done triggered Eva's worst insecurity and jealousy problems -- and made her doubt how much Gideon really wanted her. In Reflected in You, those seeds would blossom into something that choked Eva's trust entirely and led her to end the relationship.  Other stuff from this chapter - what happened Tuesday evening Gideon had his first individual therapy appointment with Dr. Petersen, who diagnosed him with atypical sexual parasomnia. Parasomnia is a disorder where people deeply asleep do things, like sleep walking. The sexual version of this involves a person engaging in sexual behavior while fast asleep. Atypical meant Gideon's case was not normal, given the nature of what he did sexually while asleep. Dr. Petersen recommended sleep medication coupled with psychotherapy to deal with the underlying causes of Gideon's becoming sexually violent while fast asleep. Gideon agreed to undergo treatment, including drugs. Gideon told Eva he invited Magdalene to a private lunch in his office earlier that day -- so that he could show Magdalene the video proof of Christopher sexually using Magdalene. Seeing the tape was very painful for Magdalene, especially because Gideon had seen the tape of her having sex with his half-brother. When Eva asked what Gideon intended to do to Christopher about the tape, Gideon admitted nothing. From what Gideon explained, any efforts would be in vain, because nothing he's attempted to do over the years has reigned in Christopher - from throwing money at him to threatening him. Damage control is Gideon's choice at this point -- including keeping Christopher away from Eva.

Christopher was only five years old, just a little boy. Gideon was ten or eleven at the time, on the threshold between boy and teenager. Pedophiles often have a preferred "type" including gender and age bracket. Obviously, Gideon, not Christopher, was the pervert's "type."

 By then, too, almost three weeks had passed since he had been attacked. The round-the-clock nursing was gone, and Tatiana had done some rather kinky nursing  of him   He was well enough to go out for a quiet night on the town with Eva, Monica and Stanton the prior Saturday and physically up to getting laid again. And during the day, he was now out on the couch instead of bed ridden.  BUT .... he still was on pain meds, something Eva had to remind him of when she brought home sparkling juice instead of wine he was hoping for Tuesday night. It'll be weeks before the fractures heal and he's in shape to work again.

Just to be clear -- the alibi was the party. It was supposed to prove Gideon did not have the opportunity to get to Nathan that night, because he was elsewhere and could "prove" he was. Â His "dumping" Eva wasn't an alibi. It was a lie to deflect accusations he had good motive to kill Nathan. Â Between the two: he had no reason to kill for Eva, and he was somewhere else the night the murder happened, together were supposed to get him eliminated as a suspect early on. Didn't work.

 Good question. Gideon made a huge mistake by going through with that dinner. Sylvia said he felt compelled to do so, because he feared Eva wouldn't ever forgive him for blowing it off. As for explaining that the police -- he's not, I'll bet. He's "lawyered up" and keeping his mouth shut.  Gideon made a lot of mistakes in his hastily-thrown-together plan to provide himself with an alibi and remove any apparent motive. They were sketchy to start with, and after the fact, he did stuff that in fact increased evidence he had motive, not deflected it.

 I knew you'd break down! You couldn't stay away from that chapter any more than Gideon can stay away from Eva. In the end, the pull is just too powerful.  Wasn't it great, though! New Eva is in charge!!! And they're back in one another's arms!!! They'll face what comes together.

 Oh Graves thought about it carefully, the exact way she wanted to phrase it. "Boyfriend." She very carefully rehearsed her approach with Eva. Later, Graves winged it based upon Eva's reactions -- and ended up screwing up by asking Eva to confirm she was the one who dumped Gideon the Saturday after Nathan died.  If Eva's suspicions are right -- and Eva is very intuitive -- then Graves knew that Gideon loved Eva all along, and Gideon never meant to leave Eva. Even after Nathan was dead, Gideon was "seeing" Eva -- he attended a family dinner to meet Eva's father around 24 hours after he killed Nathan.  I'll bet Graves was fishing for information on whether Gideon was still seeing Eva. Because any evidence of that would be evidence to be used against Gideon.

 He was traumatized young. He himself admits he had anger issues as a kid, and what he described as his behavior (physical tantrums) was bad enough that it was causing real trouble (negatively impacting the behavior of a younger sibling.) So yes, Gideon had problems at the threshold separating his childhood from his teens. Problems that could have been helped with proper counseling -- but also that could have been helped by supportive parenting. That alone might have been able to help him adjust without the need for professionals.  But he wasn't getting good parenting from his own mother, and probably getting no love at all from his stepfather. The only reason professional help was brought in was for the benefit of the pregnant-and-stressed-out Elizabeth and for the benefit of stopping the bad influence on Christopher Jr. But then the services of the shrink who'd been brought in for Gideon instead got diverted to Elizabeth. Gideon got left alone with a doctoral candidate - and it was either that man or someone else who started sexually abusing  Gideon.  So if Dr. Lucas, a young physician at the time, was indeed brought in as one of the pediatricians to refute the claims Gideon was being sexually abused, well by the time Lucas met Gideon, the poor kid would have crossed over the border from troubled to someone with very serious mental health issues at the time. He was traumatized in the worst way possible, and PTSD would have already begun to set in.  That doesn't make Gideon crazy -- or evil -- like Dr. Lucas would like to believe. But by the time he became a teen-ager, Gideon did have a serious mental health history -- very serious traumas inflicted upon him as a child. He was (still is) a very loving soul who had a lot of terrible things happen to him, leaving him scarred in a way that he still struggles with. He knows a part of him is broken. What he's learning is that it's not broken beyond repair. Love -- and real help -- can make all the difference in the world.

 Great way of phrasing it -- loaded the gun for Deanna to fire.  Deanna is working on Gideon's dark past. Lucas is convinced Gideon is a sociopath. Gideon sexually used Lucas' own wife, earning Lucas' deep enmity. Lucas has some connection to Gideon's family -- had something to do with the reasons why Gideon will have next to nothing to do with his family. So Lucas probably knows something about the fact Gideon had mental health problems when he was young.  Lucas has good reason to want to paint Gideon as a man who emotionally abuses women for fun because Gideon is seriously disturbed, has always been disturbed. 1. Lucas firmly believes this is true. 2. Lucas wants revenge.

 I'm convinced Dr. Lucas is the one who suggested to Deanna that she go after Eva. Lucas probably hoped Eva would jump at a chance to hurt Gideon in revenge, and Lucas figured Eva could be a treasure trove of dirt.  By the way, I think Lucas suggested Deanna go after Eva BEFORE he suddenly got surprised by Eva coming after him. Eva showed up in his office on Tuesday morning, making accusations of her suspicions Lucas covered up Gideon's sexual abuse. Deanna probably was already working on the story and just hadn't gotten around to seeing Eva until Wednesday night.

 I think Gideon's rapist is still alive -- but I think Gideon had something very bad done to the guy. Maybe Gideon did it himself.  When Gideon first found out about Nathan, he swore to Eva he'd find Nathan and " .... make him wish he were dead." (Bared page 182) Gideon didn't kill Nathan for revenge -- he killed Nathan because Nathan posed mortal danger to Eva. So I can't see Gideon killing his own rapist. But I can see Gideon stone cold enacting some horrific revenge.

 Sylvia has told us exactly when Gideon started the part of his Nathan plan that included hurting Eva -- it started after their romantic getaway to North Carolina. It started when they got back and Gideon found out Nathan was the one who half-beat Cary to death.  The Waldorf was just more stupidity on the part of Mr. Clueless Who Keeps Screwing Up. It also was his bad in that he was trying to control the whole situation -- was trying to control Corrine in order to prevent Eva from getting hurt. Hah! Idiot!!!!  One thing that does bother me though is Gideon sneaking into Eva's apartment in the middle of the night, that week he started deliberately hurting her, to try to soothe her by making love to her for hours. Soothe her even though the very next day, he was going to act like she didn't existed in the middle of an important business meeting and then was going to take Corrine to that party, making sure he got photographed looking like he and Corrine were intimate. Gideon, Gideon, Gideon -- still thinking making love to Eva is the cure for her insecurities. What he did that Wednesday night in a way constitutes a so-called "mercy f***" -- slang for having sex with someone fully intending to let them down afterward.