LN Cronan

The saga started in June (when Bared began). We're now up to August in Chapter One of Entwined. Description of Eva exiting the cab onto the sidewalk, "... sticky August air rushed in to chase the air-conditioning away."  Possibly Eva's birthday, the "Happy" part. Or maybe happy "anniversary" some sort of milestone of how many months they've been in one another's lives? We're now in the neighborhood of two months since they met in the lobby of the Crossfire. So, exchanging a snapshot of an elevator lobby for a snapshot of flowers sent to Eva at home?  Gideon always enclosed some sort of note when he sent her something, starting at the beginning with the "hangover cure" delivered to her apartment.  This story is from Eva's point of view, so this snapshot would involve either something Eva literally sees -- or -- has been told about first-hand.

I think I've got this figured out, how "hours" could have passed between Eva listening to Graves and Eva being back home, thinking about the drama of the evening's events.  Eva was in a complete daze when she left the Krav Maga studio and had Clancy drive her to Gideon's. She remained in a daze as she sat on his doorstep. In fact, at the time she didn't know how long she had been there. She didn't snap out of her daze until Gideon came off the elevator. They talked, and she went home. Out of her daze now, she figures out what time it is. She knows when her Krav Maga class ended. Simple math makes her realize how much time elapsed.  So possible timeline: Eva has Clancy drive her to Gideon's. Still in a daze when she arrives, she goes on autopilot thinking she's going to stay for the evening/night. In other words, she's going to Gideon's instead of her apartment for the rest of the night. So she dismisses Clancy for the night instead of asking him to wait. She sits there for a considerable amount of time while Gideon, still in a great deal of emotional anguish, worked late to help distract himself and then spent a couple of hours at the gym trying to physically outrun his pain through a punishing workout. She does snap out of the daze when he finally does get home. She tells him exactly what Graves said, and tells him he needs to call his defense team ASAP. She also tells him, as a cop's daughter, it's quite possible Graves is trying to set them up. So she tells him she's leaving right now. Talking with her at that moment is the last thing Gideon wants. Because it would involve talking about what he'd done. Sit there on the doorstep and hold her some more -- yes. Have a conversation beyond what she told him? No. So he doesn't stop her when she leaves. In agony, he watches the elevator doors shut. She gets a taxi and heads right home. Agh, she paid with a debit card, too, so she left an electronic trail of her trip. He calls his defense team. Then he screws up his courage to go to Eva's. He needs to know whether his worse fears are true: she now would conclude he is a physically violent person, one it would not be safe for her to continue to be around. Is it now over forever?

 Deanna didn't tell them she was a reporter. That'd gotten her tossed out of there right away. She claimed she was a friend, and she asked if she could wait in the lobby, given Eva wasn't home. The staff wouldn't have thrown her out.  When she did spot Eva, she called "Eva!" in a way like a friend would, a sort of "Hey, Eva!" instead of a "Ms. Trammell."

 OMG, what if this Deanna does get to Cary -- not necessarily at his/Eva's apartment, but somewhere else? Gets him to spill some dirt about Gideon? Because Cary knows a lot -- even knows Gideon has sexually-violent nightmares. And Cary knows all the good, bad and ugly about how Gideon treated Eva at various times. Cary knows that when it comes to relationships, Gideon is ephed up and so women around him end up hurt. We know Cary is going to be kept in the dark about Nathan, and so it is possible Eva will hide from Cary that she is secretly back together with Gideon. What if Cary thinks that Gideon coming over that first night of Entwined, to have sex with Eva, is simply more of Gideon deliberately confusing Eva sexually and emotionally? And this mistaken belief makes him angry at Gideon, having good reason to believe all Gideon is doing is continuing to hurt Eva?  The consequences of that could be more than just Cary being Captain of Team Brett. Cary might decide to cooperate on a nasty media expose of Gideon Cross.

Chapter Sixteen of Bared to You - The Readers Guide  This chapter unfolds Sunday (day 14)  Key plot developments: This chapter continues one of the longer scenes in the book, Gideon and Eva in the library at his parents' library. An important early clue about what's behind Gideon's sexually violent nightmares comes out -- something happened to him in that library sometime in the past. The love they make in the library evolved into something more than make-up sex. Each of them had gone to a psychological boundary past trauma had set, and each of them breaks past it. Later that night, Gideon would verbalize the power and control pattern that's been leading their sexual relationship all along: he's dominant and she's submissive. This chapter is the first time we see Gideon interact with his mother and his sister. New characters: Two members of Gideon's security team (mentioned in brief passing)   Clues about Gideon's past In the prior chapter, when Gideon started making love to Eva in the library, she protested they shouldn't do so where they were at the time (in his parents' house while a party was in progress out on the grounds.) But he said "it has to be here" and she consented. This chapter starts with them post-coital (well, at least at the moment) and as they talk, and immediately Gideon said he wants them to leave the party, because he doesn't want Eva at his parents' house and around his family. It's the house and the family, not Eva, that's the problem. "There's nothing wrong with you. It's this place. I don't -- I can't be here. You want to know what's in my dreams? It's this house." (Page 232) He doesn't explain any further what he meant by that, but Eva intuitively senses he'd suffered sexual trauma there at some point. He and Eva aren't quite yet done having make-up sex, though, and as they go at it again, a slightly creepy incident comes up when his half-brother, Christopher, walks in on them and doesn't immediately walk out, like Magdalene had. Gideon has to tell him to get lost. Afterward when they do prepare to leave the estate, Gideon's mother approaches them, thrilled he's there. Eva is startled to watch Gideon turn icy cold to his mother. Her attempt to convince them to stay falls on deaf ears, and Gideon doesn't even bother to answer her practically begging him to come to dinner later that week. Eva does, however, talk Gideon into at least saying goodbye to his half-sister, Ireland, obviously hungry to talk to him too. Gideon does so as a favor to Eva.  About Eva's sexual past too During their second go-round having sex in the library, Eva for the first time made a specific request: that Gideon touch her anally. His immediate response was "I don't do anal play." Even though he's already proven he's sexually adventurous, the fact he's hesitant about engaging in a particular activity is another clue to Eva he's got some demons of his own. Her reason for asking him to touch her there is to erase some of the trauma Nathan inflicted on her. (From what we know about the scars the medical exam at age 14 revealed, she's been raped anally as well.) "You can give my body back to me, Gideon. I believe you're the only one who can," she pleads. (Page 234) Before he does grant her wish, he asks her whether she has a safeword (which is, in dominance-submission,  the way a submissive says "stop" in the middle of a sexual activity if things reach a place beyond the sub's physical and or mental comfort and consent zone.) She never engaged in any past activity where a safeword would be part of the arrangement, and she doesn't need one then and there. But the fact she was even asked raises a concern in her mind, one that later would become apparent when she and Gideon are at his apartment that night. She'd be told for the first time in her life she's got the sexual tendency of being submissive.  A few other things that crop up in the chapter In his home office-study, Gideon had created a photo mural on the wall, containing some of the pictures that had been taken of him and Eva the past week they'd been involved. Most were copies of the various shots that had appeared in the press, but it turned out he took one candid of his own: Eva asleep in her bed Tuesday night, one candle burning, as she lay there waiting for him to arrive. Eva discovered Gideon has an actual security detail, not simply a driver-bodyguard. Gideon had driven the Bentley himself, because Angus had the day off, and Gideon had been so freaked out when he learned Eva was at the Vidals, he raced there. His security detail had raced after him. Cary had been experiencing some early anxiety with his new relationship with Trey. They'd already spent the night together, but Trey hadn't phoned Cary on Sunday morning. This bothered Cary before the party. But while Eva was elsewhere, Cary did get Trey's call.

Chapter A Day Re-Read Project - Today is Chapter Seventeen of Bared  This chapter starts Sunday (day 14) and goes through sometime middle of the night Sunday into Monday (day 15)  Key plot developments: This chapter features Gideon yet again talking about a framework for their relationship. However, this time, he's not setting boundaries - he's defining a way he believes Eva will feel safe with him sexually within a dominant-submission pattern they'd already fallen into. Eva discovers more things he had done during the four days they had been apart to prepare for what he'd been counting on her coming back on her own. He created a "safe room" in his apartment where she could retreat if she needed space. He bought her a promise ring. Before she opened the box, she momentarily panicked it could contain an engagement ring, and neither one of them was ready for that step, they both agreed. However, the fact she'd even thought about marriage made her recognize in her own mind she definitely had fallen deeply in love.  Once each of us has read Chapter Seventeen, 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.

 She would have needed to drive in San Diego. She's still awed by traffic in New York. Hmmmmmm ..... maybe because she's got a transportation fetish (LOL!)

What's the deal with Eva taking a cab home from Gideon's. Clancy drove her from Krav Maga there. Did she tell Clancy to leave? I think she probably did -- which would have had Clancy running right to Stanton and Monica to report Eva had gone to Gideon's apartment building to see him.  As for the "talk" they never got to have on his doorstep, I think all it entailed was Eva recounting to him word for word what Graves said to her. He needed to know all of that right away, so he could immediately call his lawyers. He probably just sat there staring at the floor listening to what Eva had found out, cringing inside at just how much she'd been told. I think that as soon as she was done, she told him she was leaving because it was too dangerous for her to be there. As a cop's daughter, she knew that.  Here's what Chapter One says about how they parted:   I’d left Gideon alone because I couldn’t trust Graves’s motives. I couldn’t take the chance that she’d told me her suspicions just to see if I’d run to him and prove that his breakup with me was a well-crafted lie.  God. The riot of emotions I felt had my heart racing. Gideon needed me now –a s much as, if not more than, I needed him – yet I’d walked away.  The desolation in his eyes as the doors to his private elevator separated us had ripped me open inside.

 Eva needing to keep Cary in the dark could be a problem. Deanna knows where Eva lives, knows Cary is her roommate, could figure out a way to get to Cary behind Eva's back, and then ...... yikes.  There's nothing Eva could do to Gideon that is worse than what's he's been doing to himself these past weeks. Especially that break-up phone call -- the things she said, and the guilt trip she laid. No wonder he looked like someone died by the time he hung up that phone. That said, moving forward Eva needs to tell him point blank when he's screwing up. And if she needs an answer out of him, no more evasions allowed on his part. She needs to make it clear he d*** well better open up, trust her and communicate with her. No more secrets allowed!!!!  Besides, Gideon's about to get a taste of karmic payback when he has to sit on his hands and privately squirm while Brett does his absolute best to try to woo Eva back. Not that Brett's going to succeed - that ain't gonna happen. But he's going to try. And the Brett situation will be, for Gideon, more of an ordeal than the Corrine situation was for Eva. It took Eva awhile, but she finally figured out any sexual feelings Gideon had for Corrine died a very long time ago. No way during all this awful time was he in the least bit warm for Corrine's form. BUT .... a part of Eva is still hot for Brett, and Gideon knows that -- and he's gotta live with that nagging insecurity.

Two weeks is not time to bring any criminal case to trial, least of all a homicide. Even two months isn't enough time. It is, however, enough time for a prosecutor to decide against charging a defendant, because there isn't enough usable evidence to win a trial. Â The prosecutor needs to establish two elements -- opportunity and motive -- in order to try to persuade a jury beyond reasonable doubt. Â Opportunity means he had the ability to get at Nathan around the time Nathan died. Gideon's alibi is broken, so he's lost his protection there. Â Motive is what they need to build now. They know he did it, and they know why he did it. But they need the evidence to try to prove his motive. If they cannot establish that evidence, the case won't fly at trial -- therefore, the prosecution may decide against charging him. Â There are cases all the time when authorities know who a killer is but do not have the ability to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt.

 I'm hoping we'll get to the real bottom of this whole brunette thing!!! Only because it seriously hits Eva's buttons.  We know Gideon dated only brunettes prior to Eva. But did he also f*** only brunettes too, prior to Eva? (the redheaded Anne Lucas doesn't count as a regular sex partner, because she was a revenge f*** not physical desire.) Or did Gideon stop f******* brunettes after Corrine?  Did hair color automatically assign the women to which of the categories: date or sex? All brunettes to the left, please, the platonic social arm candy category? All blondes and redheads to the right, please, report to the f**** pad?  Is it June 4th yet?

Actually, I'm wondering whether Deanna wanted to sleep with Gideon but her turned her down -- she got stuck in the "platonic date" category. He took her out a couple of times then threw her onto the date reject pile -- maybe she's mad because she didn't even get laid. Â Cary had given Eva a folder full of stuff to read up on Gideon shortly before Eva went out on her first date with Gideon (the advocacy dinner). Magdalene was not the only woman Gideon was photographed with -- Magdalene simply was the one he appeared with most frequently. Â One way or another, I think Ms. Johnson had "expectations" that Gideon didn't meet. Good Lord, if he's been plagued by a bunch of women with "expectations" in the past, no wonder up front he wanted to negotiate the terms of seduction with Eva.

Besides, it looks like we have another ex of Gideon's to worry about - Deanna Johnson. She comes across as someone who also wants at Gideon for selfish reasons, but here it's to harm him, not to land him. She's trying to make an ally out of Eva now (hah! good luck with that!) But Deanna comes across as someone who could just as easily try to make Eva collateral damage.Â

 We can rest up for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. That's when we're due to cover Chapters 20, 21 and 22 -- the Night of the Fundraiser Fiasco. Â

Favorite line from Chapter Sixteen, page 239: Â Gideon tells Eva, "We don't fight, angel. We just have to learn not to scare the out of each other."

 A couple of theories: Corrine thinks the nooner stunt worked - it seriously undermined Eva's trust in Gideon. And unfortunately, it did, so Corrine's objective was met. I'm certain Gideon called up Corrine to chew her out about what she'd done -- which only served to reinforce to Corrine that Eva really is vulnerable. Corrine probably convinced herself that the mistrust she'd sown came to fruition with Eva blowing things with Gideon. If Arnoldo gossiped to Corrine about Brett, then she's probably certain Eva blew it. For a couple of weeks, Corrine basked in the triumph that Eva was history. But then Eva showing up unannounced at Corrine's apartment, which made Corrine fear that Eva wasn't totally out of the picture yet. Corrine, realizing that maybe Eva might be considering making another run at Gideon, came up with a plan on the spot to repeat the "nooner" stunt in a far-more devastating way, sending Eva sobbing off into the sunset forever. For one thing, she tried to make Eva believe that now she (Corrine) had moved beyond hotel sex and gotten Gideon into her (Corrine's) own bed.  Too bad, Corrine, that when push came to shove, in her heart Eva knew her man. Knew he wasn't sleeping with Corrine, because he didn't love Corrine, had never loved Corrine. Eva still couldn't figure out why the eph Gideon was treating her (Eva) the way he was, but Eva at least figured out that Gideon was, in fact, in love with her (Eva).

Just like her mother drove herself (and Eva) crazy with efforts to try to control Eva physically (control her environment in order to stop anyone else from harming her) Gideon had, during the whole push-Eva-away been trying to control her emotionally (keep her at a safe distance for however long he needed her to wait for him.) Â Dr. Petersen had to remind Monica that Eva needs her boundaries and a sense of control over her own life, things Nathan had brutally taken from Eva during those four years he victimized her. Â Hopefully, Eva can tell Gideon "Listen, I'm going to tell you what Dr. Petersen told my own mother ...... get it?!"

 We're all fantasizing about a literal cat fight (a physical altercation) because of how well our heroine has held up during two figurative cat fights (Magdalene and Corrine.) Even though Magdalene won the first one, Eva landed some good verbal blows. As for Corrine, it was no contest - Eva won that one hands down. Can we go three-for-three Blonde versus Brunette - Eva versus Deanna?

 All along, he's known his inexperience and his own set of issues was going to cause him to mess up sometimes. The day they became a couple, he asked Eva to cut him slack during his learning curve. As things progressed and they hit rough spots, he kept asking her (sometimes begging her) to tell his what it is he'd done wrong and what he needed to do to make things right. Unfortunately, far too many times she pulled a runner rather than talk things out.  So now there is hope. Because when they met in her bedroom as Entwined opened, she told him he was wrong for the way he cut her off. He tried to change the subject, but she wouldn't let him -- she demanded to know whether she still was cut out, and whether or not this was permanent. He got it. More importantly, he already knew what he had to do to make things right: give her back her freedom to make choices. He even gave her the option to choose to end things forever. He was done trying to control her, because he saw the terrible damage it caused.

It's ironic how one reporter with an obvious ax to grind firmly believes Gideon used Eva to manipulate Corrine, his goal to get Corrine to come back to him for good. The truth is Gideon is using Corrine to manipulate the media as a whole, his goal being to make the cops go away so that he and Eva can be together forever.

 New Eva has also decided that as far as Brett goes, she's " .... never going to wade in that pool again." (Entwined With You, Chapter One).  Poor Brett doesn't stand a chance. Even if Eva and Gideon hadn't secretly reconciled, still Brett didn't stand a chance. Eva pretty much told him that weeks ago, when they had lunch, but he wasn't convinced she meant it. So he's going to give it his best shot. And unfortunately for Gideon, Gideon cannot step forward yet and publicly claim Eva is his (nor can Eva claim Gideon is her's). To the world, there is no more Eva and Gideon -- that's been over for good for weeks now.

 Unfortunately, there are some things they cannot ever tell Dr. Petersen or Dr. Travis -- specifically, that Gideon killed Nathan. That opens huge legal risks that the therapists might be duty bound to break patiently confidentiality themselves and report the crime to the police -- or -- a prosecutor might ask a judge to order one or both of the doctors to testify.  I hope Gideon and Eva can go back to Dr. Petersen to resume treatment, obviously though keeping the truth about Nathan's death secret. Gideon needs individual therapy now more than ever, and the pair of them need help in breaking the dysfunctional patterns that time and time again have torn them apart.

On another subject, one of the things that touched me most deeply about what Gideon said to Eva in Chapter One is his willingness to let her go now. He didn't want her to spend the rest of her life afraid of him if she honestly believed he was a violent person. She suffered enough being afraid of Nathan. He was promising no more trying to manipulate her emotions, to chase after her, to try to force her to take him back for the upteenth time. Â He was willing to spend the rest of his life without her, even though it would kill him, rather than try to force her to stay with him. Â Poor Gideon.

Deanna is, however, exposing herself to a huge legal risk if she does in fact smear Gideon's reputation by getting serious dirt on him. Because she is motivated by malice. One false step, and she opens herself to being utterly destroyed by being found guilty of libel. Â As long as every word she prints is true, Gideon's can't touch her. But if she gets something wrong, and he can prove it, it's a slam dunk to nail her for libel. Â If you ladies can stand one more mini-lesson in media law in the United States. Â Ordinary, every day people have a much higher degree of protection against news stories that contain untrue information about them. If an untrue story runs that seriously harms an ordinary person runs, he/she can sue for libel, and has a halfway decent chance of succeeding -- even if the false story is simply because the reporter screwed up. Â Public figures, however, give up a great deal of protection against the media. By putting themselves in the spotlight, they've put themselves in a place where the media's going to be paying attention to them. And because reporters are human who make mistakes, there will be stories that contain false information. Sometimes the information could even harm the celebrity. Â However, if it's a case where the reporter honestly made a mistake, then a public figure can't successfully win a libel case against that reporter and/or his/her news organization. The legal concepts -- and this is the exact way it's phrased -- is "absence of malice." Absence of malice is an absolute defense against lawsuits brought by public figures. And it is the plaintiff, not the news organization that has the burden of proving malice. In other words, the news organization doesn't have to prove itself innocent of malice -- the plaintiff must prove the reporter guilty. Â If Deanna screwed up, Gideon could easily prove malice. She'd be in deep, deep trouble, as would be any news organizations that ran her false reports. Gideon could actually dismantle them through civil lawsuits.

If Johnson stands firm protecting Lucas as a source, there's no way Gideon could prove Lucas was the one who leaked information about his (Gideon's) childhood mental health problems. Â Because Lucas is right in a way when he said Gideon can't get away with anything he wants just because of his money. No matter how much money he paid lawyers to try to expose Lucas as a reporter's source, he won't be able to force the reporter to cough up Lucas' name. There's considerable case law under the U.S. constitution that protects the rights of journalists to keep sources confidential. These protections fall under the constitution's First Amendment, which protects freedom of the press. So anyone has an uphill battle in court trying to convince a judge to rule in favor of the plaintiff (here, Gideon) instead of the defendant (here, the reporter and whatever news organizations ran her story.) Â There are instances in which judges have sided with plaintiffs anyway, ordering reporters to cough up sources. However, this doesn't work either, because it's a badge of honor for reporters to go to jail for contempt of court rather than reveal a source. Sooner or later the reporter always gets out of jail anyway, and usually sooner when an appeals court over-rules the judge's decision. Indeed, one of the motivations of reporters willing to sacrifice themselves by going to jail is the hope that the appeals will end up with rulings favorable to the press, creating an even bigger body of case law protecting freedom of the press.