Picking up where we left off:
Eva wakes up the next morning with a raging hangover, makes some coffee, and joins Cary in the living room. When she arrives on the couch, Cary motions to a package that had come for her that morning.
"It was wrapped with brown paper and twine and had my name handwritten diagonally across the top with a decorative calligraphic flourish. Inside was an amber glass bottle with HANGOVER CURE painted on it in a white old-fashioned font and a note tied with raffia to the bottle's neck that said, Drink me. Gideon's business card was nestled in the cushioning tissue paper." -- I would not drink this.
She drinks it.
"I pried the cork out and drank the contents without thinking twice about it. It tasted like sickly sweet cough syrup. My stomach quivered in distaste for a moment and then heated.
...
'What was that?' Cary asked.
'From the burn, it's hair of the dog.'" -- I've done a brief survey of one person (husband) to think of sickly-sweet-cough-syrupy alcohol you could send someone, and we came up with Jagermeister or Sambucca. I've had Sambucca and it is NOT pleasant. You are an actual dick if you tell someone to drink this. Not as big of a dick though, as the person who blindly drinks a liquid that appeared at their house overnight.
Cary asks her if she wants to call Gideon, and she declines. She's still too fuzzy to deal with him and she needs to have a sharp mind to deal with him. He jokes that maybe their casual-but-physically-intense sex will turn into something serious and she scoffs. She doesn't want anything serious and Gideon's money turns her off. And it reminds her of her mom.
"Love wasn't a requisite for marriage in Monica Stanton's opinion, and since her sultry-eyed, breathy-voiced beauty was irresistible to most men, she'd never had to settle for less than whatever she wanted. Unfortunately she hadn't wanted my dad for the long haul." -- your mom sounds like a dick. This must be where you get it.
Eva and Cary go out for a spa day with Eva's mother. Nothing happens except for three pages of needlessly detailed interior design. Cary casually mentions to Monica that Eva may or may not be the object of a certain millionaire's affections, and Monica, gold digger that she is, can't believe Eva hasn't married the man already.
After the spa, Cary and Monica go shopping for cuff-links for Stanton Richard/Richard Stanton and Eva goes home to call Gideon.
"He answered on the first ring. 'Eva.'
Startled that he'd know who was calling, my mind scrambled for a moment. How did he have my name and number in his contact list? (Honestly, how many times is she going to need reminding that he OWNS THE COMPANY SHE WORKS FOR). 'Uh . . . hi, Gideon.'
'I'm a block away. Let the front desk know I'm coming.'
'What?' I felt like I'd miss part of the conversation. 'Coming where?'
'To your place. I'm rounding the corner now. Call the desk, Eva.'" -- actually how about you get yourself to fuck and she keeps her goddamn doors locked. Who does this? He was just going to her place? Not knowing if she was home? Although he owns the building she lives in so maybe he knows that too. This guy is gross.
She decides to let the crazy man inside. He says he's there because she took too long to call him. It has not yet been 24 hours. He tells her she looks beautiful and that he "can't remember wanting anything this much." Not someone. Like she's one of those amazing Samsung Food Showcase Refrigerators I've been pining after.
He tells her to go with him to this charity dinner thing that night, which he already knows she's attending since her parents will be there. She doesn't want to go together because it's a high profile thing and she doesn't want to hear it from her mom, and lots of excuses, but most important, the answer was no.
"'I'll pick you up at seven.' His tongue traced the wildly throbbing vein in my throat and I melted into him, my body going lax as he pulled me close.
Still, I managed to say, 'I haven't said yes.'
'But you won't say no.' He caught my earlobe between his teeth. 'I won't let you.'"
Will this gif be the new Buzz Lightyear?
Gideon somehow takes 'I haven't said yes,' as an invitation to untie her robe, and surprise surprise, she's naked. There is almost zero time in between naked Eva and uncomfortable Reader.
"His mouth surrounded the tip of my breast, the wash of heat bringing a mist of perspiration to my skin.
My gaze darted frantically to the clock on the cable box. 'Gideon, no.'
His head lifted and he looked at me with stormy blue eyes. 'It's insane, I know. I don't - I can't explain it, Eva, but I have to make you come. I've been thinking about it constantly for days now.'" -- Do you want to know what I've been thinking about constantly for days now? Having more money. But you don't see me off robbing a fucking bank. Also, how cold is your skin that his breath creates condensation? I asked Craig (husband) to breathe on the back of my hand, and nothing happened. Gideon spit on you, Eva.
"'You're wet for me,' he murmured, his gaze sliding down my body to where he was parting me with his fingers. 'You're beautiful here, too. Plush and pink. So soft.'"
Run, Eva. Before he tries to skin you alive.
Following this, Eva has three orgasms in as many sentences, which, honestly, just sounds painful. After, Gideon gets up to leave.
"'Seven o'clock, Eva.' He reached down to touch my ankle, his fingertips caressing the diamond anklet I'd put on in preparation for the evening. 'And keep this on. I want to fuck you while you're wearing nothing else.'"
And, scene.
CHAPTER 6
The chapter opens with Eva on the phone to her dad - the guy her mom never married. She tells him about her new job and going out the previous night with Cary, but deftly leaves out Gideon. Her dad asks about her mom, and she tells him she's fine.
"My chest hurt and I rubbed at it. I thought my dad might still love my mom. He'd never married. That was one of the reasons I never told him about what happened to me. As a cop, he would've insisted on pressing charges and the scandal would have destroyed my mother." -- the first half of this has literally nothing to do with the second half. You never told him what happened because he isn't married? And what does him not being married have to do with him being a cop? Also, as I think I've said before, your mother is a dick.
She gets off the phone and starts getting dressed. Her mom has sent her a dress, it's red and one-shouldered and ruched on the hip with a slit up the side. Literally everyone in the world has seen this dress. Cary tells her to wear her diamond earrings, and they spend 2 pages complimenting each other. Cary tells her he's printed out Gideon's past and left it in a folder on her desk. While he goes downstairs to let him in, Eva starts to read.
"It was like watching a train wreck to read that he was the son of Geoffrey Cross, former chairman of an investment securities firm later found to be a front for a massive Ponzi scheme. Gideon was just five years old when his dad committed suicide with a gunshot to the head rather than face prison time." -- Excellent. I was wondering when we'd get his melodramatic backstory.
She leaves her bedroom and heads to the living room to meet Gideon. He's standing at the window.
"His reflection revealed a contemplative mood. His gaze was unfocused and his mouth grim. His crossed arms betrayed an inherent unease, as if he were out of his element. He looked remote and removed, a man who was inherently alone.
He sensed my presence, or maybe he felt my yearning." -- or maybe he saw your reflection in the fucking window.
The three of them take the elevator down from Eva's apartment, Cary whistling merrily with his hands in his pockets. When the doors opened, two women waiting for the elevator gaped obviously at Cary and Gideon, something seems to happen all the time in romance novels and not at all in real life. Eva and Gideon get into his limo, and Eva decides that that's the time for sex.
"I sucked on his tongue, having learned how much he liked it, having learned how much I liked it, how much it made me want to suck him elsewhere with the same eagerness." -- This sentence just made me laugh, really.
"When he fell heavily into my palms, he groaned, the sound both pained and erotic. I squeezed him gently, my touch deliberately tender as I sized him with my hands. He was so hard, like stone, and hot." -- Edward Cullen's body felt like marble. Fifty Shades was Twilight fanfic. Bared to You is a Fifty Shades rip-off. I feel we've really come full circle here. No pun intended.
They have sex for three pages, and then Gideon kills the mood.
"He looked stunned and . . . grateful, his eyes warm and tender. 'I don't want to break up this moment.'
Because I could hear it hanging in the air, I filled it in. 'But . . . ?'
'But I can't blow off this dinner. I have a speech to give.'
'Oh.' The moment was effectively broken." -- yes, well, you can't stay in his limo all night, can you?
They continue the drive in silence, Eva feeling more and more uncomfortable.
"He didn't move a muscle as I shifted beside him and put my compact away, as if he weren't even aware I was there.
Abruptly, Gideon opened the bar and pulled out a bottle. Without looking at me, he asked, 'Brandy?'
'No, thank you.' My voice was small, but he didn't seem to notice. Or maybe he didn't care. He poured a drink and tossed it back.
Confused and stung, I pulled on my gloves and tried to figure out what had gone wrong." -- I'm gonna spend an entire book waiting for yet another woman who agrees to a romance-less, purely physical relationship to realise what exactly "purely physical" means, aren't I? Women who write books like this owe it to the women who read them to give their Leading Ladies more than half a brain. We are smarter than this.
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