Nrock

Oh WTF-La Rose Noire.

What did Eva give Gideon as a housewarming gift? (too easy)

Cross trainer towels? Not sure she ever got the Waterford to him

Oceanside-is my prize Henry?

Sorry, your prize is to think of another one. I thought possibly San Diego would be given and be the wrong answer. Well done!

 

 

Well this is it our last Chapter 23.  What will we do!!!

I shouldn't be suggesting this because in no way do I have the expertise to set something up, but I was thinking about something that used to (maybe still is) be on a Georgette Heyer website. Some admirer had set up a series of trivia contests asking extremely detailed and obscure questions. There were bubbles with choices offered and there were scores recorded. I think it went on for quite a long time.

Anyway, with this group it might be impossible to stump any of you. Maybe we could think of some just for fun. How about : What city does Victor live in?

Hi Barbara

There's Tat, and her baby bump!

But I think you covered the biggies!

Or her non-baby bump!

We pull you in on this site as well, enjoy the madness, I love it LOL

I am so glad to know other people are reading in a loop (what a great way to describe it) I am also not doing all the regular reading I do in the summer and I usually average several a week. And if I'm not reading the Crossfire books I am getting a fix by reading this forum. I've even considered joining Facebook after hearing about all the Gideva stuff there. I always swore I never would, though. Thanks to everyone who has been posting exciting news from that world. Nancy

Chapter 23.

Hope I'm not jumping the gun on posting favorite lines, but I've got to be off to a class shortly and I love this line when Gideon comes in to collect Eva: "Wow," I breathed, entranced. "You are SO getting laid tonight." I do enjoy it when Eva is playful like this.

ame="Nrock" post="21105" timestamp="1372375426"]

Hi Nrock

I disagree with you here.

Eva needs closure in this relationship. Once he knows about her marriage he will back off. Brett used her body for sex, (yes she gave it to him, for the wrong reasons)when she was at her most vulnerable state. He is still doing the same thing. He is not thinking about her feelings, his words "it will only take once inside you," how romantic is that. To him she is just a vag ina on legs. The video of "Golden" was insensitive, just promoting, groupies will stop at nothing to bed a rock star. (Yes he knows about the sex tape)She was ashamed of what she was. Her need for love and affection, wasn't going to happen with Brett. She needs to speak to him face to face, once and for all. She needs to look him in the eye, that is how she knows what people are thinking? That is how Eva reads them. I would do exactly the same thing in her place. Needing to see their expressions, their understanding of what has been told to them.

Closure.

So sorry for the miscommunication here, Julie! I was just making a very silly joke in reply to what you said about Brett being a ghost that needed laying. I meant a little off color pun about the ghost (Brett) laying should not be done by Eva. That's why I put the smiley wink after. Sometimes my jokes can be a little obscure.

I definitely believe Eva needs to cut him off, like now! I just differ about Brett a little. I think he is sincere in his feelings for Eva, and regrets his past treatment of her. I do think he is still immature and egotistic, but I think he has grown from when he first knew Eva. Is he a grown up yet? Definitely not! But Gideon didnt act much better when he first started pursuing Eva. I know I am in a very small minority here, but I think he will be very upset when he finds out about Sams tape. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what Sylvia says!

Hiya.

I agree. Brett is unfinished business. This ghost needs laying to rest.

But not by Eva. ;)

Hi Nrock, 

Wouldn't Sam have had to have his equipment set up somewehere to catch Brett and Eva in an intimate moment?  Or do you think that Sam maybe followed Eva and Brett knowing that they would wind up having some kind of se*?  Both scenarios sound just as disgusting!  I am wondering just how sinister this Sam guy is?  What do you think?  What does everyone think?

On page 337 when Gideon is telling Eva about the s e x tape Gideon says, "he apparently set up remote cameras at some of the band's shows to gather backstage material. He claims to have re-created the Golden video with actual explicit footage."

Hope this clears up the question of when he made the tape and how he got the s e x on tape. Sleazy, slimy, Sam. I hope when Brett finds out what Sam had been doing he beats the sh*t out of him. In addition to being pis*ed off about having been spied on, he'd have to figure it would have queered any chance he had with Eva.

Totally agree w/ both of these...100%!  Do we really think that Brett didn't know about the video though? That Sam never told him? It's been been years that he's had it. Was just waiting for 6/9ths to make it big before releasing it? Or maybe he never thought of releasing it until now..Eva was just one of Bretts groupies that he prob got on film, so no biggie...until now?

My thought/impression was it was after the excitement about the Golden song and the video, Sam went through his collection of backstage "candids" and surveillance type film recordings and then cut and edited anything he could find with Eva and Brett in it into a semblance of the music video. What a sleaze ball or dou che bag as Cary would say.

 

I love this title.  It makes me feel good about the next book.

I love this title, too. Um, maybe it's just me, but it also makes me think there might be a little more fun with restraints and such. Is that a stretch?

I want it like yesterday!!

I want it like Now!

I would go so far as to say that Brett doesn't love Eva but loved how Eva looked at him, threw herself at him, worshiped him.  Big difference...I think that Brett misses his muse.  I too, am so suspicious about that sex tape.  Look at the graphic nature of that video.  How on earth could Brett have justified that it would be ok to share that with the world?  Wouldn't he know that would be humiliating to Eva or at the very least very embarrassing?   What does everyone think?

I'm not sure Brett would be clued into how embarrassed and humiliated Eva would have been about the music video. For people in the entertainment business, publicity is life blood. They thrive on it and need it and it keeps them in the public eye. Also, from what I see happening in the world of Facebook (though I don't belong) and Instagram and all the other media sharing platforms, many people of Eva and Brett's generation feel differently about sharing intimate details about their lives. After all, what Brett knew about Eva wasn't much besides she was fun, convenient, and a great f*ck. He didn't know her or her trauma or her new life style. He may have been, and was, clueless about what her reaction would be. Poor dumb cluck may have been thinking she'd be pleased because he was publicly declaring his love and muse.

Please don't think I'm saying that everyone on Facebook is like that, just that I think there is a different mind set for every generation. Sometimes I can't believe it when my daughter has shown me examples of what some people post!

The real sex tape is another thing, however. I don't imagine Yinara ((sp?) would have showed it to him or that Brett would think it was ok. Yimara is probably just trying to make a quick buck by capitalizing on the Eva video. Sure it probably wouldn't have bothered Brett personally, but I don't think he'd be stupid enough not to understand how most girls would react. After all, he's trying hard to get back in her life.

Ideed!!

Jane Eyre is one of my best fav books, along with Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heitghs.... Heathcliff too reminds me of Gideon!

I believe that in portraying strong female characters, a writer cannot but be amazed by characters like Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bartlett and Kathy.... (oh my I can't remember her surname!), whose feelings and sentiments are so strong and 'modern' I wouldn't bel surprised at all if SD both liked and was also influenced by the Brontes.

Gideon definitely has some Heathcliff aspects! Glad Silvia was kinder to him, though.

I still would like to know what Angus whispered to Gideon. I remember Gabri came up with some lovely words from Arnoldo. Sheena, couldn't you tell us what he said? Something better than have a nice roll in the heather?

Sheens, sorry for getting your name wrong! Fingers ahead of my brain. I haven't yet gotten the message that proof reading is done BEFORE you turn something in!

Hi Julie

Busted!!!!

I do love redheads and the Scottish accent always does the trick for me..... it was only a matter of time!

I still would like to know what Angus whispered to Gideon. I remember Gabri came up with some lovely words from Arnoldo. Sheena, couldn't you tell us what he said? Something better than have a nice roll in the heather? :)

Hello everybody from sunny (and too hot) Italy!!!!!

 

I married Gideon Geoffrey Cross barefoot on a Caribbean beach with the hotel manager and Angus McLeod as witnesses.....

 

this is the perfect ending to Gideon and Eva's perfect love. The first ten words never ever fail to  make my eyes all shiny... After all Gideon and Eva (and us with them) have gone through, they can now experience perfect bliss. And so do I!!!!!

 

A secret marriage on the beach..... arranged to the tiniest details by someone who used to say he didn't like romance!!!

 

I was a little troubled by the prenup. Although I understand the necessity of such an arrangement between two wealthy people who are going to share their life with one another, I really don't like it, because it points out and reminds us that everything has a price: sex, love, children...

 

But Gideon was actually only protecting his own heart against the remotest likelihood of Eva walking out on him.  "There's nothing I wouldn't do for you" he tells Eva in RIY, which apparently includes giving up most of his wealth as well. As though killing Nathan wasn't enough!!!. His lawyers must have had a really hard time in convincing him otherwise.

Those opening lines remained me of the end of Jane Eyre where she says ,"Reader, I married him." I think I remember reading an SD interview where she said she had liked or been influenced by the Brontes. I love Sylvia beginning the chapter that way.

I think Gideons problems are just not related to his abuse, I think it goes far deeper, concerning his mother, who I think has a penchant for young men. Hence her comment to Cary at the garden party, and Gideons comment back to her. I said a few weeks back that there were odepidial tendencies in his relationship with his mother.

I agree, Julie. The mommy issue is a classic. (pun intended)

Gideon lost one parent and then probably felt he lost the other when his mom re-married quickly and started a new family. Whether she intended it or not, I'm sure her focus was on her new husband and babies, at the expense of a needy and bewildered child, who was a reminder of someone she doubtless wanted to forget. Have to wonder why Vidal Senior didn't adopt Gideon so he wouldn't have to deal with the stigma of his father's crime so much. Poor kid - I hope it wasn't too long until Angus entered his life and established a relationship with him.

Gideon may have said he bought the family business to save his mother worry, but, hello, he was also showing he could look after his mother better than Elizabeth's husband. Maybe taking over her husbands role, no?

Thoughts on chapter 17

Re-reading chapter 17 really bothered me. I've tended to skim over it in re-reads because the whole video thing really upset me, but I just re-read more carefully. Of course I'm on Team Eva and have explained and justified a lot of her very questionable behavior, but I have to say she really crosses a line here in her dealings with Brett. After seeing that video she should have excused herself from dinner if it bothered her that much, and it should have. Why should she be worried about hurting his feelings and saying she was freaked out and embarrassed by the video? And it's very strange to me that if she wanted Arnoldo to think better of her, she would have gone there. There were other places Gideon could have had a eye kept on her.

She definitely didn't need to invite Brett up - there was a natural break when she arrived back in the taxi. She could easily have ended things politely right then. And she definitely sent Brett very mixed messages in the apartment. IMO she was not far off from being what guys call a pric*teaser if you really examine the things she says as well as her physical cues. All in all I think Brett's behavior there was pretty polite and gentlemanly. Eva - not so much.

Two problems I have with some of the Monica theories:

One, I don't believe, based on her previous actions and attitude, Monica would ever have the mental fortitude, aka balls, to go off on her own to deal with either Nathan or Russian mobsters. She is too used to having men solve her problems. Not to mention Clancy and Stanton guarding her.

Two, Eva never refers to her mother having financial stresses. On the contrary she refers to millions that Monica had acquired over the course of three marriages. Now you could say that Monica kept this a secret from Eva. But she couldn't have kept it a secret from Stanton. He's got to be managing her portfolio. How could Monica say she needed a few hundred thousand or a million or whatever without him knowing why she needed it?

When Monica says she hopes Eva is never drained financially, it is during the conversation about why she couldn't stay with Victor which I take to mean the desperate financial straits were during pregnancy and before she met and married Barker. But I may be wrong. Monica certainly makes some equivocal statements during that conversation.

Now, Monica dealing with Corinne, or Ann Lucas or Elizabeth - that I could see. Would like to see!

I'm not sure how interested people were when we were discussing how much money Cary might make, but I ran across an article in the New York Times that gives some info about other modeling work. Hopefully the rates for appearing in ads are much better"

"Models in a Calvin Klein show are placed under exclusive contracts that restrict them from appearing on any other runways; are flown to Milan; put up in hotels rather than the overcrowded crash pads that are standard model housing; and paid for their time and talents at a figure experts estimate at about $10,000, a particularly lavish sum when the industry standards have dwindled. Many male models can now hope to earn no more than 350 euros (or about $454 at the current exchange rate) to appear on top runways."

Here's the link to the article. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/fashion/dont-know-this-face-just-wait.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1371836605-fUWTmypg54V4ZoL29/w1yQ

I love Ireland's role and persona, especially in this chapter - so fresh and unsullied by all the sh*t flying around. Love her sweet naïveté, as though Gideon and Eva's situation is like a high school drama that can be solved by having your best friend pass a note or staging an "accidentally on purpose" running into each other.

She could so cut right through anything Corinne might pull if she were making an appearance here. I hope she gets a rain check soon on her cancelled dinner with big brother.

Cary, with "more than casual interest" asked Brett -- almost as soon as they got into the limo together -- "How's Erik?" 

 

The Sixth-Ninths band member that Eva suspects is straight but had sexually experimented with Cary. Maybe Erik is, like Cary, bisexual? Plus Erik supposedly is "dealing with some issues" -- meaning he could be someone who "needs" Cary? Cary has been with T.w.a.t. because she "needs" him, Cary explained to Eva.

 

Is Erik going to be Cary's happily ever after? Trey can't handle Cary being bi instead of gay, and Tat is a b**** who I suspect is lying about the fact she's having Cary's baby. Perhaps Erik is the one for Cary.

I should have vetted that b loody Golden Video

 

Amen to that! Vetted, bought the rights, and gotten rid of it! Or at the very least taken Eva off somewhere she wouldn't have been associating herself with it. Poor Gideon - so many fires to be putting out.

That is the way I saw it too, nothing bad just that she wanted somewhere that Gideon knew she would be and that he knew was a place close to her as well as him

And Eva and Gideon were both right in their choice of restaurant. I love the way Arnold stands up for Gideon's place with Eva and then , even better, sits down and makes himself part of their evening. And since he's had a meal with Eva previously, he's aware of something else he can do to distract any wayward thoughts she might be having. I'll bet he has some gorgeous and decadent dessert all ready to bring out. Last time he did zabaglione with raspberries, this time maybe a special tiramisu or dark chocolate gelato or...

Yum!

Well that's a mouthful! lol

Well then try one of the more alliterative ones:

Tawdry Tatania

Toxic Tatania

Temperamental Tatania

Tattling Tatiana ( if she did)

Any of these work for you?