LN Cronan

Deanna Johnson has probably got a notebook full of interviews from high society attention w**** to dinner waiters at the Waldorf about how much of a jerk Gideon really was to his "supposed" girlfriend -- don't let those red carpet pictures of her looking gorgeous in a red gown and seriously sexy in a white cocktail dress fool you. Truth of the matter is he's past the cameras, he's pretty disrespectful. Â She probably thinks Gideon staged the two candid of their passionate kisses - the one on the sidewalk near the gym and their argument make-up kisses in Bryant Park. Â BUT ..... and I've mentioned this before. This unfortunate series of events where Gideon stupidly made mistakes in front of crowds twice can come in handy if needed in case of emergency. It can bolster his cover that he supposedly never loved Eva. And now that Eva knows the truth, she'd be OK with that. In her own bed the first night of Entwined, she got all the proof she needed Gideon loves her -- and Gideon belongs to her.

 Thinking this through a little more, a possible theory I have for the "crisis" in Chapter Fifteen of Entwined -- we find out the fate of Gideon's rapist. What was done to the guy -- and how much of a hand did Gideon have in it?  This ugly truth could make Gideon's confession of having sexually used Anne Lucas for revenge look mild in comparison.

 She's right about that. The marital privilege covers only crimes committed after the wedding.

What's worse about what happened at the Waldorf was it was the second time Gideon stupidly mistreated Eva at a high society event.  Eva was numb the first night she appeared in public with Gideon, but she noticed the second time (the Waldorf) that everyone was staring at them -- staring at Gideon the celebrity, obviously.  So that whole fiasco at the dinner table, from Eva sitting there miserable to Lucas insulting Gideon in sight of everyone there, would have been noticed. In fact, people would have noticed Gideon dragged Eva out of there just before dinner. They'd naturally assume she and Gideon went somewhere to fight. They'd have seen her leave the dinner alone, walking out on Gideon. The prior week, they'd seen Gideon leave alone, walking out on her.  Honestly, in high society circles, Gideon's come across as a total jerk to Eva. No wonder Deanna Johnson believes Gideon was simply using Eva to make Corrine come back.  I don't think people knew who the beautiful brunette was, not that night, not unless someone remembered Corrine from society circles. Gideon had been a nobody years ago when he'd been Corrine's boyfriend and then fiance. And she'd just come back to New York that week after having been overseas for many years.  Fast forward to the media frenzy later that summer when Gideon started taking Corrine out again. From the get-go, the tabloids knew exactly who she was. It's obvious Gideon made sure the info was leaked. The press had to get it right and get it right away -- Nathan was out there in a postal mood, and too much was riding on leaving to chance that it meant nothing Gideon was sitting with some woman other than Eva at a restaurant on a Monday night.

 The part in Reflected where Jill Redfield narrates the break-up telephone call Eva placed to Gideon is guaranteed to make you cry.

 I got mine from audible.com -- because I listen to a lot of audiobooks, I have a membership plan with audible that makes it a lot less expensive to buy audiobooks. I listen to them on my iPod.  Note: you do NOT need an iPod or similar MP3 player to listen to the audiobooks from either iTunes or audible. You can listen to them on your computer. Also, you do NOT need to buy from iTunes in order to be able to play the audiobooks on an iPod -- audible works on iPods.

 We're all crazy in love.

And previously, Andie, I did a parody of your  "The Unresolved Cerebrally Humorous Arguments pattern back when we were on Chapter 10 of Bared to You.  Now that we're all nearly done with the group re-read, I'm doing the whole rundown of having some fun with the yo-you pattern -- what happens during the even-numbered chapters.   Chapter 2: Eva Doesn't Play Hard To Get -- She IS Hard to Get Result: Gideon's Got Blue Balls  Chapter 4: Gideon Can't Handle This Anymore Result: He's Still Not Getting Any Yet - But He Gets Closer  Chapter 6: Gideon Finally Gets Some Result: Gideon Can't Handle It  Chapter 8: Gideon Finally Gets A Girlfriend Result: Gideon Doesn't Know How To Handle It  Chapter 10: Gideon Almost Loses Her Result: Gideon's Got Issues  Chapter 12: Eva's Got A Handle On Her Darkness Result: Gideon Fears He'll Scare Her Away  Chapter 14: Gideon Cannot Handle His Own Darkness Result: Gideon Sends Eva Away  Chapter 16: Gideon Gets Control Result: He Reaches A Sexual Deal  Chapter 18: Gideon Gets Some Love Result: His Dream Comes True  Chapter 20: Gideon's Past Comes Back To Haunt Result: Eva's Worst Nightmare  Chapter 22: Gideon Gets Eva To Listen Result: For Now, Her Fears Are Laid To RestÂ

I do, however, have a theory about Chapters 14 and 15 based on the snapshots  Entwined Chapter 14 (the detective shield) the murder case story line comes to a climax? Entwined Chapter 15 (man's hand gripping the sheet) the full secret about Gideon's rape trauma history comes to a climax? So maybe having dealt (finally) with the sword hanging over Gideon's head in the present, the story takes us into his dark past.    Bared Chapter 14: Gideon ended his new relationship with Eva due to his nightmares Bared Chapter 15: Gideon won Eva back through several actions, one of which was to sign them both up for therapy This part of the book was the make-or-break point for the new relationship, and the two of them decided to try everything they could to make it.   Reflected Chapter 14: Eva finally recognized Gideon was deliberately alienating her. Reflected Chapter 15: What would be (for then) the last night of their relationship ended with the detectives telling her Nathan had been found dead. This was the make-or-break point for Gideon having pushed Eva's blind trust to the limit. It was break, because the next morning, she ended their relationship.

 It took a little digging, but I found what I posted about my Entwined theory about two weeks ago, using what snapshots we had at the time:  Caution, though - things have change a lot since then. I've added * notes on what I think has   Chapter 1: They've just entered the biggest crisis of their relationship, the revelation Gideon killed Nathan -- and they have to talk about it. * Er, actually they didn't have a full talk yet, and a vindictive reporter has shown up.  Chapter 2: By the time it's over, they've talked, decided what to do next, and have had lots of loving make-up sex. * I think I got this part right    Chapter 3: not sure -- the snapshot appears to be work related, but we know that some chapters contain multiple scenes, and some end with cliff-hangers. An example is Chapter Seven of Bared - the last sentence of that chapter is the cliff-hanger of Eva telling Gideon right to his face she doesn't want to see him anymore (because of how he treated her badly on their first date.) My guess on possible cliffhanger is Brett shows up. * Er, maybe not until Chapter 16, the Times Square bleachers snapshot.  Chapter 4: Between the snapshot and the snippet shortly before that snapshot, we know Brett, Eva and Gideon all are at some sort of Vidal Records PR event in Times Square. Perhaps the resolution here is how Eva and Gideon are publicly going to handle their ex(es) - Brett (and possibly Corrine too) for now while still seeing one another secretly. * Er, now I think this is where the reporter runs a story about Gideon going postal on Brett.    Chapters 5 & 6: The snapshots are towels (#5) and a bathtub (#6). Perhaps a bath taken together in which they talk about some of his dark childhood secrets. Gideon had been around members of his family in Times Square - maybe that's the crisis heading into Chapter 5. In Chapter 6, the newly-honest Gideon actually opens up to Eva, telling her anything she wants to know.    Chapters 7 & 8: Something to do probably with Eva now living her own public lie as a footloose, fancy free party girl, already over that Gideon Cross she'd dated for a few weeks earlier that summer. It's Gideon's turn to squirm now, karma for those weeks in Reflected where Eva endured agonies of jealousy from repeatedly seeing Gideon appearing to be intimate with Corrine.    Chapter 9 onward: haven't figured out an obvious pattern beyond what happens with Gideon and Eva getting together in the dance club, but maybe they get spotted together, despite Gideon's disguised appearance.

 Eva's going to start demanding nothing less than rigorous honesty from him. And not for another moment is she going to continue to enable his efforts to control her (outside the bedroom, that is.)  I think at last he's finally figured out his past efforts to try to control things have ended in disaster. He definitely knows now that daring to open up to Eva is his only option now. If he tries another control stunt or if he shuts her out again, she might leave again, this time forever.  He wants to change, because he loves her. He has to change to keep her. So does she, for that matter. She shares a lot of responsibility for what's gone wrong too.

Hearing the whole Fundraiser Fiasco on audiobook, listening to what each of the women says (Eva, Magdalene, Corrine) makes what unfolded in Chapter Twenty a whole lot more significant -- and a whole lot worse. It makes it understandable why Eva became such a hot mess in Reflected over what happened that final night of Bared to You. Because she was hit very hard when Corrine blindsided her, and Gideon's attempt to control the situation only served to make matters a whole lot worse.  What he ought to have done is left with Eva as soon as he spotted Corrine, gone some place quiet with Eva, and explain to her that he had a former fiancee, one he's been talking to recently via trans-Atlantic phone calls because she's in crisis, and she's decided to move back to New York.

 She knows now Gideon loves her, has loved her all along. She knows he risked everything to save her. All along she's known he would never deliberately physically harm her.  But she knows he deliberately emotionally harmed her. There's a difference between forgive and forget. She's forgiven him for pushing her away, and she's decided to go back to him. But she's smart enough to not let what happened simply slide, now that she's seen that manipulative side of him. She's smart enough to not simply trust it could never happen again.  Gideon is going to have to work harder than he's ever worked for anything else to earn back her trust. He'd been begging her, while in the midst of hurting her, to "trust" him. I think now he realizes that in fact he destroyed her trust.  In the meantime, New Eva isn't ever going to put up with his control-freak attempts to micromanage her ever again. She's not going to enable his dysfunctional behavior in that department any more. This is a very good thing, I think that will make it possible for them to work out long term.Â

 Whereas Gideon firmly believes Eva can have any man she wants, and he's probably convinced she'll abandon him. Abandon him over his dark sexual past. Abandon him as being violent enough to commit cold-blooded murder. Abandon him because he's destroyed her trust in him.  Two out of three. He's wise enough to know that his deliberately hurting Eva by pushing her away has terrible consequences now. Eva isn't afraid he'll physically harm her, but Eva now fears he could mentally/emotionally harm her again. He committed emotional violence. Can she ever live with that -- or will it leave her so afraid of him that ultimately, she'll leave.

 A very serious conversation is needed between the two of them about their respective exes -- one in which Gideon better d*** well handle the right way: honest communication and trust in one's partner.  On her own -- and while she still had every reason to believe things forever were over with Gideon -- Eva faced down her own demons about Gideon's ex. She figured out what her gut had been telling her all along, something that before then she couldn't recognize because of the insecurity raging in her head and the shattered heart in pain. She finally recognized that in her gut, she knew Gideon wasn't f***** Corrine. Eva still didn't have a clue what the h*** had (so she believed) destroyed what she (Eva) had with Gideon. But Eva knew now it wasn't what she had been (wrongly) convinced of: Corrine had some sort of sexual hold over Gideon that he'd never gotten past.  Whereas Gideon .... well all the pain he's gone through during his estrangement with Eva has had to have included terror that she was going to go back to Brett. Twice he'd seen her turn to Brett even while she was still his (Gideon's) girlfriend. Now Eva had pulled the ultimate runner and Gideon had found out Brett "reconnected" with Eva. What the h*** did that entail? He and Eva had hashed out the first time Eva went to Brett (the kiss) but never the second time (Eva's lunch date with Brett.) And now Gideon has painted himself into a corner where it is dangerous for him to demonstrate in any way to outsiders that he and Eva are together. Thus Brett has every reason to believe he (Brett) has a clear shot at Eva -- that Gideon is a non-issue at this point, because Eva had been nothing more than a fling and now Gideon was back with the woman (Corrine) he'd wanted to marry.  Every time Gideon tried to communicate with Eva in the past about the truth about Corrine (after the night Corrine showed up and then the next day after the "nooner" stunt) his reassurances fell on deaf ears. Eva wouldn't believe him -- her own issues made her paranoid.  Now Gideon has got to listen as Eva communicates to him she has no intention of becoming involved with Brett again. Can Gideon listen -- and believe -- given his own inner demons. Eva's faced hers, but he has yet to deal with his own.

I'm catching so many little things during this re-read project that I've missed before, missed during my original read of the book, re-reads of some important parts, and even listening to the audiobook. Â New thing I caught: Eva looked at Magdalene, standing there with her and Corrine, when Eva came to the awful realization Gideon dumped her (Eva) the night of their first date in order to rush off to help Corrine, who had telephoned him in crisis. Â Magdalene must have seen the awful look in Eva's eyes -- and Magdalene herself would have immediately figured out the exact same thing Eva had. Because Magdalene herself had been there the night of Eva's first date with Gideon and had seen for herself what a jerk he'd been. She'd seen Gideon rush off too -- and took the chance to pounce on the now-ditched Eva. Â So Magdalene did what she could to eavesdrop on Corrine talking with Gideon. And Magdalene called up Eva the next day to defend Gideon and criticize Corrine for how awful the night before had turned out for Eva. Â I'm liking Magdalene even more. She's got Gideon's back as a longtime friend who wants him happy in love -- having figured out that she herself (Magdalene) isn't the one he'll be happy with.

Chapter Twenty - favorite quote or paragraph:  Well, I wouldn't call this a "favorite" necessarily, because it's a traumatic moment for Eva. But this quote that runs through Eva's mind is crucial to everything else that follows later. Between Gideon's ignorance of how to be in a real relationship, and Eva's very serious problem with insecurity and jealousy issues, this is the thing that nearly destroyed their relationship, and its profound effects are still reverberating as Entwined opens.  Background: Gideon made the huge mistake of keeping Corrine a secret - and so Eva was devastated when she got blindsided to Corrine's existence. Gideon made an even huger mistake of telling Corrine that Eva has real problems with insecurity and jealousy, thereby handing Corrine weapons that could destroy what Eva has with Gideon. Corrine's first mind game triggers every one of Eva's buttons. She let it "slip" that she called Gideon in crisis recently and asked for his help, inadvertently catching him in the middle of some society function. I say "slip" because red carpet shots of Gideon with Eva at that function were plastered all over the Internet when the sensational news broke that Gideon had a serious new girlfriend. That function was the night of Eva's first date with Gideon, the one that ended badly with him ditching her to leave early and alone.  So this is the crucial paragraph, the last one in Chapter Twenty, what Eva thinks to herself as something inside of her breaks -- her already shaky trust in Gideon, now all-but destroyed.  "Oh my God ... Gideon had left me in a rush that night for her. For Corrine."

 Twice before, Eva has hurt Gideon via Brett -- payback for Corrine. Hopefully, the third time will prove the charm in breaking their mutual severe issues of jealousy and insecurity.  Round One  Gideon blew it unknowingly: In what Gideon would later admit (in North Carolina) had been his mistake, he vastly underestimated just how badly Corrine's sudden reappearance in his life has triggered Eva emotionally. Gideon confessed that prior to what happened as a result (Brett), Gideon had believed Eva was just over-reacting. Gideon still really didn't get it, though, (Mr. Clueless) that everything he did the night Corrine came back, from trying to lie (but getting caught) to ignoring Eva at dinner, did very serious damage to Eva.   Eva screwed up unknowingly in response: Eva was still suffering the effects of her newly-triggered severe problem with insecurity and jealousy when Brett came upon her alone outside after the concert. Unconsciously slipping into her patterns of wounding others when hurt and of acting out sexually when confused, she returned Brett's kiss with real passion, acting on what obviously was still lingering sexual attraction to Brett -- and Gideon caught her in Brett's arms. Of the ways that Eva has been guilty of doing damage to Gideon, this betrayal was the worst -- on a certain level, she cheated on Gideon sexually, seriously triggering his own raging insecurities. Round Two  Gideon consciously hurt Eva: As part of his immediate actions to neutralize Nathan, in the wake of discovering Nathan poses a threat to Eva's life, was to attempt to defuse Nathan's raging jealousy (and buy some time to put an end to the Nathan problem.) Gideon took Corrine out to dinner. Gideon obviously made sure some paparazzi photographer got "candid" shots of them as a couple -- and sure his PR people leaked Corrine's identity as his former fiancee. He did this all behind Eva's back on Monday night, while she stayed at Cary's bedside in the hospital.  Eva consciously got even: Late the next morning while at work, Eva found out via the Internet that Gideon had taken Corrine out and the gossip sites were going nuts that he'd been seen with his former fiancee. Brett just happened to show up at the right moment (for Eva) or worst moment (for Gideon). Brett, who had found out online Eva was employed by an advertising agency, showed up at the Crossfire without warning, hoping to talk with her. Eva jumped at the chance to see Brett, knowing Gideon would find out. She took Brett out to lunch. At first, she even entertained the nasty impulse of trying to make sure pictures of her with her own ex got taken (she took Brett to the same restaurant where the paparazzi had photographed her and Cary as a supposed "couple." Fortunately for Eva, no photographers caught them. Fortunate in that Nathan was out there postal at the time, and the Cary-Eva pictures had nearly gotten Cary killed, because Nathan believed the lie Cary was sleeping with Eva. The unintended consequences: Gideon Gideon took Corrine out a second time two days later, this time as part of his desperate final solution to the Nathan problem. He threw a PR party and made sure the press got a photo of him and Corrine. The purpose was two-fold: to give him an alibi and a cover that he hoped would make the cops quickly eliminate him as a suspect in Nathan's killing, which went down that night, probably during the time the party took place. The f*** pad hotel was perfect, strategically, because of it's near proximity to Nathan's hotel and because it was a place Gideon could easily sneak in and out of. Gideon must have known Eva would react badly, but again he underestimated just how badly she would react -- especially because something he'd never planed on happened. Eva found out about the rape pictures and video Nathan had -- and confirmed her suspicion Gideon saw them. This gave her good reason to believe (wrongly) Gideon had sexually rejected her. She further believed (wrongly) Gideon ran back to Corrine as a result. Eva took the party at the f*** pad hotel as proof in her mind he was sleeping with Corrine and was done with her. In what was probably the most traumatic thing Gideon ever went through, Eva telephoned him to do what she believed he was too much of a coward to do himself - end their relationship forever. Not only did that call devastate Gideon, but his reactions were witnessed by the lead detective in the murder investigation. That call lead to the detective figuring out the Corrine cover was a well-crafted lie -- and Gideon shot right to the top of the murder suspect list. The unintended consequences: Eva The kiss coupled with Eva taking him to lunch made Brett believe he actually has a shot at what he'd been hoping for for years now, hopes he'd put into music when he'd written the hit love song "Golden." Brett wanted a chance to apologize for hurting Eva and to beg for another chance. Thanks to Gideon's actions, Brett got his chance at both over lunch. He learned what's he'd done to make Eva run, apologized (apology accepted) and told Eva point blank he wants another shot. She told him "no" but he wouldn't accept it. He challenged her "prove it" she meant no. Brett then left New York to continue the concert tour, but while out there gave a radio station interview revealing there really was an Eva, that he'd "reconnected" with her, and he'd decided to try to win her back. Gideon obviously found out about this interview, and this prompted him to start making more mistakes in his now-crucial cover story that he didn't love Eva. Two days in a row, he had contact with Eva -- contact that could be documented through witnesses. It's possible this is what prompted Detective Graves to immediately set to work on dismantling his Corrine-cover, giving Graves the crucial evidence she needed to prove Gideon's motive. Graves had already broken the alibi -- now if she broke the cover story protecting Gideon against motive, she'd have enough to probably get him arrested. Thus it was Eva found out the truth - Gideon killed Nathan. If a trap was indeed being laid, Eva was made the bait.  Next? What's Gideon going to do about Corrine moving forward? Corrine obviously is fooling herself she's succeeded in destroying his relationship with Eva and in winning Gideon back. And the whole world believes it too. How's Gideon going to handle his being powerless to stop Brett from pulling out all the stops to woo Eva? It's possible (likely) the whole world is going to find out about Eva and Brett .... and .... what?

Chapter Nineteen of Bared to You - The Readers Guide  This chapter runs Monday evening (day 15) through Tuesday evening (day 16).  Key plot developments: For the third time, Eva witnessed one of Gideon's sexually violent nightmares. This time it's in her bed, not his, and it was the worst yet. Still deeply asleep, he attempted to rape her. Cary stopped him from doing so. A shattered Gideon wanted to leave afterward, but she convinced him to stay. Even though Cary is in a formal relationship with Trey, Cary started a friends-with-benefits relationship with Tatiana, a female model, having her sleep over Monday night, to Eva's chagrin. On Tuesday night, Trey caught Cary and the model in bed together.  New characters: Tatiana Cherlin  Escalating nightmare situation Twice prior, Eva has witnessed Gideon having sexual nightmares. This third incident, Monday night, would be far worse than the others. The first happened one week prior (Monday), the first night Gideon shared his bed with Eva. In it, he tried fending someone off and behaved as if something painful were being done to him.  She gently woke him up but didn't ask him anything. Two nights later, also while Eva slept over, he had a more severe nightmare, one in which he acted out physically while still asleep, violently stroking himself. This time, Eva tried asking him what was wrong, and when he lied about even remembering what he'd just dreamt about, walked out on him. Next day, he ended their brand-new relationship. Four days later, he begged her to take him back, which she did. Now, exactly one week into their formal relationship and two weeks to the day since they met, Gideon has yet another nightmare, this time in Eva's bed. This time, he turned sexually violent, imaging he is raping a person who hurt him. In actuality, still deeply asleep and not knowing he's doing it, he'd actually act out his violence -- against Eva, there in the bed with him. Eva's scream awakes Cary, who stopped Gideon, waking Gideon up in the process. Cary assumed Gideon consciously was trying to rape Eva, and Cary was ready to call the police. Eva stopped Cary by telling him Gideon was just dreaming. Cary, who'd already heard from Eva that Gideon suffers nightmares but now was witnessing a terrible one himself, said, "Jesus Christ -- and I thought I was f**** up." (page 282).   How they handle the aftermath this time Gideon is the one who wanted to run this time, preparing to leave Eva's apartment immediately, but Eva convinced him to stay, telling him, "We agreed -- no running," (page 283) and also telling him, "If you leave, we lose and our pasts win." (page 284). Still, he protested, admitting he views himself as messed up and broken. To that, she reminded him she too is messed up and broken in some ways (i.e. she's got a history of sexual trauma.) What finally convinced him to stay was Eva reminding him he's already arranged to get professional help, from Dr. Petersen. They ended up spending the rest of the night on the floor of her bedroom, first falling into an exhausted sleep, then later making love to give Gideon reassurance he desperately needed. Post-coital, Gideon cried until dawn.  Some tidbits about Gideon's sexual past Prior to the crisis that happened Monday night, Eva asked Gideon some questions about his sexual past. His answers revealed several noteworthy pieces of information. He'd always maintained a f*** pad prior to meeting Eva -- in fact, had always kept in the same hotel, the one he'd taken Eva to that first night of their formal relationship. Gideon claimed that prior to Eva, he could take or leave sex. Between working hard and working out harder, most of the time he was pleasantly exhausted. He occasionally got an offer he couldn't refuse, but he claimed that in the time he'd been sexually involved with Eva (a little over a week at that point) he'd had more sex with her than in the past two years combinded. More significant (given how the information would later play out) the hotel is the only place he'd ever had "consensual sex." It's as close yet as he's come to hinting what his nightmares suggest, that he'd been sexually abused sometime in the past. Also, Eva would later learn Gideon used the hotel for more than just getting laid - for the first three years of his adult sex life, the hotel was the only place he'd ever have sex with his first lover, a woman he'd ultimately become engaged to.   Cary's lovelife gets complicated Monday evening, (again, before the nightmare crisis erupted), Eva spent a quality evening at home with her boyfriend and her best friend , an evening interrupted by the arrival of Tatiana Cherlin, who like Cary is a fashion model. To Eva's dismay, Cary took Tatiana to bed, thus cheating on his new boyfriend, Trey. Fast forward to Tuesday evening after work - Trey arrived at the apartment building just as Eva was coming home from work, so Eva let him in. Trey caught Cary in bed with Tatiana. She immediately left, and Cary spent the next more than 30 minutes in his room with Trey. Then Trey left in tears, and Eva figured out (correctly) the men had sex. Her response was to chew out Cary for messing up his new relationship - and Cary went on the defensive by pointing out Eva was in a destructive relationship with a man who is a ticking time bomb.

Chapter A Day Re-Read Project - Today is Chapter Twenty  of Bared  This chapter runs Tuesday evening (day 16) through Wednesday evening (day 17)  Key plot developments: This chapter is one of the most important in the Crossfire series thus far, and it is in this chapter that the crisis point of Bared to You starts to unfold. Gideon kept secret from Eva the fact he'd been engaged years ago -- and has been in contact recently with his ex. Eva finds out the hard way about both when Corrine crashes a fundraiser event Gideon and Eva attended, blindsiding the pair of them. Caught off guard, Gideon's first impulse was to keep Corrine's real significance a secret, lest Eva erupt in insecurity on the spot. Unfortunately for him, though, Magdalene, who knows the history, tells Eva about Corrine's past history. Then while he's tied up elsewhere at the event, Corrine herself tells Eva about her (Corrine's) present day history of being in near daily telephone contact with Gideon.  And she admitted to still being in love with him. The crisis happened Wednesday evening. Tuesday evening, Gideon had his first individual therapy session with Dr. Petersen, who formally diagnosed Gideon's condition that makes his become sexually violent in the midst of nightmares: atypical sexual parasomnia. Gideon agrees to a combination of sleep medication and psychotherapy to treat the disorder.  Once each of us has read Chapter Twenty, our homework assignment from Sylvia herself is for each of us to pick our favorite quote or paragraph.  The chapter re-reads also have been the springboard here for lots of discussion. We're continuing to touch upon the chapter of the day, but even more, discussion has been jumping backward into the earlier chapters and forward in the story (even into Reflected and into what we've got for Entwined - Chapter One of it, part of Chapter Two, the snippets and the snapshot clues.) The re-read of one chapter daily is leading us to analyze how different parts of the Crossfire saga have been connecting.

 If Gideon's building has a service entrance, that could make it easier to smuggle Eva in and out the back of the building. I'm guessing he probably used a service entrance to her own building to sneak in that first night.

 Well considering that over the weekend, Brett gave that interview saying he had reconnected with Eva and wanted another shot ....  Early afternoon, Gideon pinned Eva in the elevator, the first time he'd any contact with her in over a week, and she said some hurtful things ....  Now there she was on the street, not only angry enough at him to flip him off, but also, she whipped out her cell phone ....  He might have been fearing the worst - that she was calling Brett, because she was now in an especially bad retaliatory mood. Bad enough that Eva had to endure pictures of him with Corrine, but to see them together with her own eyes walking out of the place where she and Gideon met .....  I'll bet Monday was an especially sleepless night for him.

 My guess - Gideon will cry his eyes out, like he had the night he'd attacked Eva in one of his dreams. Cry for how much he hurt her eyes wide open. Cry in relief that just like then, she's not going to run. The fact she still loves him even with blood on his hands I think will finally get through that thick, insecure skull of his -- he's worthy of love, of her love.  Then they'll have a long-overdue talk about Corrine -- and about Brett too.  Next, they'll talk about what they're going to handle things in the immediate future. This time, Eva the cops daughter is going to be calling the shots on how they can be together without giving Detective Graves any more ammo than Graves already has. And Eva will warn him about Deanna Johnson.  Once all that's taken care of, they'll screw like feral bunnies until dawn. They've lot a lot of pent up sexual frustration to burn off.

I hope it means her agent is negotiating hard!

Favorite quote from Chapter Nineteen of Bared. Gideon says this to Eva after she's convinced him to stay, not run, over what he almost did to her in the midst of the worst-yet violent nightmare he's had while sharing a bed with her.  "Make love to me," he begged in a breathless whisper. "Make love with me. Touch me, angel. Put your hands on me." (page 289)  This especially moves me because of what happens weeks later, in Chapter One of Entwined, after Eva's convinced him she's not going to run away forever over what he'd done to Nathan.   â€œTouch me.†The words were an order, but his tone was a plea.  Up until that point, they'd been holding one another, kissing, and Eva crying. But "touch me" is how Gideon begs her to start what he himself couldn't dare - them to start making love for the first time since all the awful happened. He was giving Eva the choice - and giving her the control too.