Previously, Gideon and Eva were reunited with the rest of their group at the mysterious Terminus where all is not as it seems…I’m so sorry, you guys, this isn’t The Walking Dead. I was just in denial. But don’t you wish that was actually what was going on?
Chapter 6
Eva wakes up and hears Gideon shouting; he’s having a nightmare in the guest bedroom (I guess they’re sleeping apart, which I know they’ve sometimes done in the past two books. I’m just surprised it wasn’t mentioned given we had a whole section on Eva’s pasta lunch a couple chapters ago.)
He jerked violently. I raced to the bedside, my heart twisting to see him flushed and drenched with sweat. I placed my hand on his chest.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” he hissed, seizing my wrist and squeezing it so hard I cried out in pain. His eyes were open, but unfocused, still trapped in his nightmare.
Luckily, Gideon snaps out of it, and is mortified he hurt Eva. As much as Gideon pisses me off, these scenes make me really sad, and I like when Sylvia Day doesn’t throw anything weird in to ruin them. It’s so refreshing and unexpected! [Matthew says: Basically the highest praise Ariel can give these books is “It’s unexpected when the author doesn’t ruin it”.]
Eva runs Gideon a bath, and she comforts him and asks him to talk about his nightmares. He says that not only do his nightmares consist of real events, but also elements of “make-believe”.
I absorbed that a minute, wishing I had the training and knowledge to be truly helpful. Instead, I could only love him and listen.
I’m sorry, am I still reading the same series here? Did I accidentally start reading something else?
I really wish I could say the next line was the typical nonsense we read in this series but it just goes on being really nice and normal. I’m scared, you guys, I’m scared that I’m in a dream or that something is very wrong because this can’t be true. [Matthew says: Check your totem, Ariel! Does your copy of Fifty Shades of Grey still have a narrative that endlessly goes in circles?]
Gideon talks more about how in his dreams he actually fights back because he never did in real life, and it makes him feel really guilty. Eva assures him that just because he was convinced not to resist, doesn’t mean it was consensual and that he’s a survivor. Legit, guys, it’s legit. I’m growing more and more concerned about my own reality.
Oh wait, okay, here we go now it’s definitely still the Crossfire series I know and love to make jokes about.
“You told me once that you don’t do anal play.” I felt him tense. “But you’ve … we’ve …”
“I’ve had my fingers and tongue inside you,” he finished, studying me. He’d altered with the change of subject, [Matthew says: Sudden change of topic for no apparent reason? Now, that’s the Crossfire we know and… and that’s it…] his hesitation replaced by calm authority. “You enjoy it.”
“Do you?” I asked, before I lost the courage.
He breathed heavily, his cheekbones
I don’t care that Eva’s interested in whether or not Gideon wants to explore anal play for himself, what the fuck ever. What annoys me is that they can’t have one nice conversation, one meaningful conversation without it having to turn back into sex. [Matthew says: It gets bonus “fucking seriously?” points because it’s about butt sex.] Why does this scene have to end with Eva jerking Gideon off? Why can’t it just end when the nice conversation is over and save the sex for a later time?
Like the shift in conversation doesn’t even make a lot of sense. “Gideon, you’re a victim. P.S. do you want to try anal play?” Day tries to lead into it by having Eva ask Gideon if he’s bisexual, but it still doesn’t really work with the tone of this scene.
Don’t get me wrong, I applaud Eva for telling Gideon she’s willing to try lots of things in their bedroom, and the fact that they’re openly communicating about this is awesome, but just, you know, in another scene.
Also, this:
He growled, his head falling back. “Make me come.”
“Any way you want,” I vowed.
The magnitude of what Eva is promising really weighs on the reader here.
We jump ahead to another scene where Gideon is getting dressed (after the bath? It’s unclear), and Eva requests that if he attends any future events where he could bring a date he’ll bring his younger sister Ireland. Whew, thank god Day remembered to throw another minor character into the mix, otherwise this chapter might have gotten dull.
Also, it’s not really clear why Eva insists Gideon bring his younger sister given Gideon’s like, “I’m just not going to bring any dates to any events, it’s cool.”
Apparently, this scene isn’t after the bath and is actually before work the next morning. Gideon tries to convince Eva to come work directly for him, which I’m pretty sure we already read in Fifty Shades when Christian keeps trying to have Ana come work for him and then just buys her company and promotes her.
“I have a job and I like it a lot. You know that.”
“And you’re good at it.” He gripped my shoulders. “Be good at it for me.”
“I can’t, for the same reason I didn’t accept help from my stepfather. I want to make it on my own!”
I’m incredibly confused because I thought that Gideon was technically Eva’s boss anyway, and she started working at Crossfire before they got together. I am so lost.
Gideon tells Eva that it’s super important to him and their relationship that she eventually come to work at Cross Industries because as you know, every couple must work in the same building or it all falls apart. Just as Eva is trying to argue for her independence, she gets distracted by her broken compact mirror. It’s more confusing to describe that in one sentence than it is to show you in a whole paragraph.
He released me and I bent down to pick up my purse. Then I noticed that I’d stepped on my mirrored compact and shattered its case. I wasn’t heartbroken over it, because I could always pick up another at Sephora on the way home. What froze my blood was the electrical wire sticking out of the cracked plastic.
Turns out the ever independent Eva was being tracked by her mother and step-father’s body guard. Don’t worry, it was when Nathan was at large, so now the device has been turned off, so all is well that ends well right?
I squeezed my eyes shut. “This isn’t about the damn tracker! I don’t have a problem with that. It’s the keeping-me-in-the-dark part that’s wrong on so many levels. I feel violated, Clancy.”
Eva is like UG MY LIFE.
In the previous forty-eight hours, I’d learned that my boyfriend had killed my rapist, one of my exes was hoping to spread me across his sheets, one of my boyfriend’s exes was hoping to smear him in the press, and my mother had microchipped me like a damned dog.
THIS HAS ALL ONLY BEEN 48 HOURS???!?!?! I know, I know I need to stop being shocked the the timelines of these books, but I honestly thought that more time had passed even though the book did start immediately after Eva found out about Gideon murdering Nathan. It just really felt like a lot longer…think about all the pasta Eva ate with Will! [Matthew says: On top of that, this is hardly the first time her mother has used technology to track Eva’s exact location. This information isn’t just two days old, this is TWO ENTIRE BOOKS old.]
In typical Entwined with You fashion, a lot of seemingly meaningless events are chucked in together, so I’ll give you the run-down:
*Eva’s boss is still angsty over whether or not his boyfriend will accept his proposal
*Eva sends Gideon flowers and he sends her flowers back. [Matthew says: Because she doesn’t want to work for him?! I understand (for the sake of argument) being controlling, but this is just being a petty dickbucket.]
*Eva’s mom calls, and Eva calls her out on her lying lies. Her mother wants to talk in person, and since she’s going out to lunch with Cary, she’ll hang at their apartment till Eva comes home.
“All right.” The irritation that had started prickling at me dissipated just as quickly as it had come up. I loved that my mother treated Cary like the brother he was to me. She gave him the maternal love he’d never had. And they were both so appearance- and fashion-conscious that they always had a blast together.
Translation: they were both so shallow and superficial that they never required a conversation with any substance. [Matthew says: Amazing that they don’t get along with more of the characters in this book.]
*Magdalena shows up. Because yay more minor characters. At least she was kinda fun? She was Gideon’s friend who wanted to bone him but wound up being boned by his asshole brother, and then she ended up being sort of nice to Eva in the end.
Apparently the evil reporter has shown up to try to get dirt on Gideon from Magdalena as well, but she isn’t talking. She also implies that she knows Eva and Gideon are still together, and Eva appreciates this.
Oddly, I found myself at ease with her. Maybe because she seemed so at ease with herself, which hadn’t been the case the previous times we’d crossed paths. “Seems like you’re doing good.”
“I’m getting there. I had someone in my life who I thought was a friend but was really just toxic. Without him around, I can think again.” She straightened. “I’ve just started seeing someone.”
Because you can only get your life together if you’re seeing someone new. The toxic person in question is also very clearly Gideon’s brother Christopher. The conversation is pretty much over after Magdalena confirms Eva hasn’t told anything to the reporter. Yay.
Later that night, Eva’s mother admits that another tracking device is in Eva’s Rolex, and Eva understandably flips out.
“I’m your mother!” Her voice trailed off, took on a note of pleading. “It’s my job to look after you.”
“I’m a twenty-four-year-old adult,” I said coldly. “By law, I can look after myself.”
EVA IS 24?!?!!?! I’m sure this must have been mentioned before but…but…she’s less than a year older than me. [Matthew says: I AM ALMOST EVA-AGED???] I thought she was like late twenties or early thirties. Maybe age in this series works more like dog years or something. [Matthew says: Okay, the only thing this series had going for it over Fifty Shades in my mind was that, unlike Ana, Eva didn’t just graduate college and become editor-in-chief of a traditional-model publishing house in 1-2 months somehow. But she’s not even a year older than Ariel and myself. She’s not even as old as the characters are on the first season of FRIENDS. Eva is a fucking baby, you guys. What is she doing in a relationship with this batshit-insane CEO? Eva basically just went from “my parents put me up in a ridiculously expensive Manhattan apartment because they’re loaded anyway” to “my parents still pay my bills”.]
Eva goes to cry at Gideon’s apartment. It’s so convenient that it’s right next door now!
Man, this chapter was long and tedious. What do you guys “hope” will happen next chapter to actually get things moving along?