When we last left off, Eva and Gideon were thisclose to breaking up because Gideon’s atypical sexual parasomnia causes him to almost sexually assault Eva in his sleep again. God I hate when that happens! The two don’t break up because Gideon knows what soup Eva likes to order without her even telling him, and they love each other, I guess.
Chapter 8
The next morning, Gideon’s made Eva coffee and she invites him to go to a concert with her and Minor Character Shawna. Get excited, you guys! The band is called Six-Ninths, and they sound so super cool.
Just when you thought all was well, though, Gideon says that if he wasn’t going with Eva, she wouldn’t be allowed to go at all.
“I’ve seen videos of their indie shows,” he said dryly. “I’m not risking you to a crowd like that.”
I sucked down a big gulp of coffee. “I get it, but you can’t order me around.”
“Can’t I? Shh.” He placed his fingers over my lips. “Don’t argue. I’m not a tyrant. I may occasionally have concerns, and you’ll be sensible about acknowledging them.”
I shoved his hand away. “‘ Sensible’ being whatever you’ve decided is best?”
“Of course.”
Shh, you guys. You heard him! He’s not a tyrant! He’s just always right, and Eva is his woman, so she should be sensible and do as he says. He’s not being unreasonable, shh. Eva eventually agrees that she’ll have to compromise for Gideon (by only going on nights out to places in his limo and to clubs that he owns) in order to make him happy.
Eva squeezes Gideon’s “very fine, very taut ass” and all seems to be well at the end of that scene, even though Gideon is a completely ridiculous human being. I’m both surprised and not surprised that this is how that conflict ended. With no real resolution and ass grabbing.
Shawna tells Eva she can invite another person aside from Gideon to the concert, so that night Eva goes to ask Gideon if he’s got any friends he wants to invite. When Eva finds him working, it seems like the perfect time for her to remind us that she is still on her period!
The combination of the physical distance caused by my period and Gideon’s understandable decision to sleep separately stirred my deepest insecurities, made me want to cling tighter and try to keep his attention focused on me.
Gideon is happy Eva’s come to see him, and he says he’d be happy to invite a friend to the concert. Eva is surprised Gideon actually has friends even though she was the one who thought to offer him the option of bringing a friend. So that makes sense. For some reason, this leads to a conversation about Gideon’s fantasies. Here’s his:
“A sex swing, Eva. Your gorgeous ass in a seat, feet in stirrups, legs spread wide, your perfect cunt wet and waiting.” He rubbed seductive circles into the small of my back. “Totally at my mercy and unable to do anything but take all the cum I can give you. You’d love it.”
This leads to Gideon giving Eva two orgasms (OMG BUT WHAT ABOUT HER PERIOD??) and then a discussion about their relationship. Pretty much the usual.
“I hate this,” I whispered. “I shouldn’t need you this much. It’s not healthy.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” His heart beat strongly beneath my ear. “And I take responsibility for that. I’ve taken the lead with some things and given it to you with others. That’s left you confused and worried. I’m sorry about that, angel. It’ll be easier moving forward.”
This line at first made me think they were going to have a formalized BDSM relationship. The thing is, I totally get that a consensual BDSM relationship can actually be really helpful for people, and I could see this being beneficial to Eva in terms of healing, but the way Gideon brings everything up is just so damn creepy!
Anyway, it actually turns out that Gideon just tells Eva not to hold herself back from him (when has she been holding herself back?), that they and their relationship aren’t typical but that’s okay (not really in this case), and that their relationship shouldn’t be draining them so much but should be something stable (agree). He also says moving forward the solution is probably to continue being completely obsessed with each other, yay!
Somehow I don’t think this conversation will solve anything even though it seems promising enough as far as their relationship conversations go. Two pages later I’m sure they’ll be having the same old fight again.
The final scene of the chapter is the two in therapy. We don’t really see any issues discussed; the main point of the scene seems to be that Eva announces to their therapist that she loves Gideon and failure isn’t an option. This prompts Gideon to pull Eva out of the session and into another room to passionately kiss her.
How many days have passed since Eva’s period arrived?! Does she have the longest period in the world or maybe only 2-3 days have passed? Plus, she’s on the pill, if I’m not mistaken – shouldn’t her period be somehow “weaker”/shorter than the natural one?
I wonder how she and Gideon will celebrate once her period is over…
I think that Day realized how weird it was for Gideon and Eva to not have any friends outside of their relationship (minus Cary) in the first book and is making up for it by giving them a bunch now (even though we’ve never heard any mention of them before and they’re only mentioned in a single sentence).