38 pages • 1 hour read
Sylvia DayBared To You
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Eva Tramell recently moved to Manhattan from San Diego with her best friend and roommate, Cary Taylor. She begins a new job tomorrow at an advertising agency. In preparation for her first day, Eva maps her walking route to work in the Crossfire Building. Despite her connections through her wealthy stepfather, Richard Stanton, Eva has chosen to take an entry-level position she found on her own.
In the lobby of the Crossfire Building, Eva bends down to assist a woman who has dropped her belongings across the lobby. When she gets up, she collides with Gideon Cross. Magnetized by the instant attraction between them, Eva falls in front of him. Gideon helps Eva to her feet. Later, Eva attends a kickboxing class at her local gym. She meets a man named Parker Smith, who invites her to a Krav Maga class he teaches. The next day, Eva returns to the building for her first day at work. As she leaves for the day, she finds herself alone in the elevator with Gideon.
Chapter 2 Summary
Eva and Gideon share pleasantries. He asks her about her first day at work. Eva wonders how Gideon knows it is her first day. They separate in the lobby.
The next day, Eva’s boss, Mark, informs her of a new business request for proposal from Kingsman Vodka, a subsidiary of Cross Industries. Mark has been specifically requested for this project. They work late and the next day to prepare for the presentation. Mark asks Eva to accompany him. She enters the conference room and trips again when she sees Gideon Cross, the man from the lobby. He helps her to a chair. Throughout the presentation, Gideon stares intently at Eva. As she and Mark prepare to leave, he asks for Eva to stay and boldly declares his desire to have sex with her. She leaves. She shares what happened with Cary later that night. Cary looks up information on Gideon Cross and reveals to Eva that he owns the Crossfire Building and Cross Industries. At first, Cary encourages Eva to accept Gideon’s advances, but Eva feels objectified. They agree she should keep resisting Gideon.
Chapter 3 Summary
Eva and Cary attend a Krav Maga class. Cary expresses his concerns about the grueling nature of the class. Eva decides to sign up for the class and not to tell her mother. The next day at work, Eva receives a last-minute invitation to a lunch with her stepfather Richard. He questions Eva about signing up for Krav Maga and confesses that her mother has been tracking her cellphone. Angry, Eva argues with Richard about her mother’s anxiety and subsequent controlling behavior. She abandons her tracked cellphone, leaves the lunch early, and finds herself alone again with Gideon in the elevator. He notices how upset she is and takes her upstairs to his office. Gideon propositions Eva for sex with no dating. Despite her strong, undeniable attraction to him, she resists. Eventually, Eva and Gideon kiss passionately until they are interrupted abruptly.
Chapter 4 Summary
Eva and Gideon separate and prepare to return to work. He insists that they meet again and compromise on an arrangement. Eva reluctantly agrees to meeting on Monday for lunch. Back at work, Eva speaks with her mother and makes plans to see her the next day. She answers a call from Gideon, and they flirt over the phone.
Stressed, Eva decides to distract herself with drinking and dancing with Cary. They hop from club to club before entering an upscale lounge and unexpectedly finding Gideon. Gideon reveals that he owns this club. They kiss again. Eva questions Gideon about his knowledge of her. Gideon confesses that he owns Eva’s apartment building, too, and set up this evening to run into her. They discuss the nature of their relationship. Although he refuses to date, Gideon agrees to spend quality time with Eva outside of their sexual relationship. Eva agrees not to call this dating.
Chapter 5 Summary
Eva wakes up hungover the next morning. She receives a gift from Gideon with a drink to cure her hangover. After a day at the spa with her mother, she prepares for an advocacy center dinner when Gideon insists on seeing her. He asks her to attend the event with him, but Eva refuses. Gideon pleasures her and tells her he will pick her up later that evening.
Chapter 6 Summary
Eva calls her father, who lives in California. Her father is unaware of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her former stepbrother. Her mother divorced her first husband immediately after discovering Eva had been sexually abused.
As she prepares for the charity dinner, Eva reflects on her friendship with Cary who was a troubled teen in foster care when she met him. She considers him like a brother. Cary informs Eva that he printed out some research on Gideon that he left for her to read. Eva reads over the information and learns that Gideon’s father died by suicide when Gideon was a child to avoid jail time for his involvement in a Ponzi scheme. She learns about Gideon’s mother’s second marriage, the birth of his siblings, and his history of dating brunette women. Eva has blond hair.
Gideon arrives to accompany Eva to the advocacy center dinner. On the way to dinner, Eva initiates sex with Gideon in the limousine. Gideon consents despite his usual strict rules for sex. They have intense sex. Quickly after finishing, Gideon withdraws from Eva and grows cold.
Chapter 7 Summary
Unnerved by Gideon’s sudden coldness, Eva runs away from Gideon upon arriving at the party and begins drinking heavily. He scolds her. Hurt, Eva dissociates through the evening as she plays the part of Gideon’s date. Gideon speaks about childhood sexual abuse at the advocacy center dinner. Passionate about the topic and amazed at Gideon’s skills as a speaker, Eva stands and applauds for him.
Eva grows jealous when she spies Gideon speaking with a woman named Magdalene Perez, whom she remembers seeing in the articles Cary provided her. Gideon’s brother, Christopher, introduces himself to Eva and asks her to dance. She then dances with Cary until Gideon cuts in abruptly. Gideon commands Eva to leave his brother alone. She asks him to do the same with Magdalene. Gideon leaves the dinner. Eva regrets opening herself up to Gideon. Magdalene confronts Eva in the bathroom and confirms that Magdalene and Gideon have not slept together. Magdalene berates Eva for sleeping with Gideon and tells her that he will never respect her. Distraught, Eva returns home with her family.
The morning after the charity dinner, Eva receives flowers from Gideon. She confesses to Cary that Gideon triggers her and that she no longer wants to see him. On Monday, Eva distracts herself with work until she receives a phone call from Gideon regarding their planned lunch date. She attempts to excuse herself, but Gideon insists they meet and comes to escort her upstairs to his office. Once they arrive in his office, Eva shares with Gideon that she no longer wants to see him.
Chapters 1-7 Analysis
The novel begins with a look into Eva Tramell’s first days in her new city. This move marks not only a physical transition for Eva but also an emotional one. She refers to New York as “a brand-new love affair for me” (3), which foreshadows the adventures in love that will unlock a new understanding of herself throughout the novel. An independent woman, Eva has also traveled to New York to begin a new career in advertising and expresses her desire “to make a living based on my own merits” (3). This independence is put to the test immediately when she collides into Gideon Cross during these first days. Instantly, Eva notes the sexual chemistry between them and remarks how “something shifted in the air between us” (5). The collision of Eva and Gideon foreshadows the intense and forceful nature of their relationship. The positioning of Gideon and Eva in this first meeting announces the power dynamics of their relationship. Eva kneels and then falls while Gideon maintains a position of power and helps Eva to her feet. Eva’s submissive nature towards Gideon figures heavily into the development of their relationship later in the novel.
Eva describes Gideon’s touch as “electric, sending a shock up my arm that raised the hairs on my nape” (6). Despite her independent spirit, Eva illustrates her instant attraction to Gideon, “as if a rope bound my waist and he were slowly, inexorably pulling it” (6). Day employs the symbolism of ropes throughout the novel to symbolize the bond between Gideon and Eva as well as sexual bondage. This description also features Daniel in the active position of power as Day chooses Gideon as the figure pulling the rope and drawing Eva closer. Eva continues to feel “that inexplicable pull to him again, as if he exuded a silent demand that I was instinctively attuned to answering” (17).
Eva struggles with this instinctual surrender of control towards Gideon. She and Cary discuss her issues with control that hinder her from taking risks. Aware of Eva’s troubled past and the aftermath of her sexual abuse, Cary encourages Eva to take “‘calculated risks’” as “‘[she] and Cross are both adults’” (29). The past serves an important role in Eva’s life. She grapples with the residual trauma of her childhood sexual abuse as well as with her mother’s anxious surveillance of her every move. Now an adult, Eva attempts to create boundaries with her mother and step into her own independence while still being unable to escape the ghosts of her childhood. Eva and Gideon unknowingly share this same struggle. Like Eva, Gideon chooses to break his rules for survival to explore a relationship with her. He agrees to Eva’s demand that they spend quality time together and tells Eva that “‘I’m breaking all my rules with you’” (86).
This shared drive for control to navigate their trauma leads to conflict between Eva and Gideon. It highlights the theme of Control as a Survival Mechanism. During their first full sexual encounter, Eva takes initiative in the limousine. Although they have passionate and enjoyable sex, Eva notes the intimacy of the act in the confined space and senses “his agitation, knew he was feeling as off-center as I was” (87). This leads to their first break from one another as Gideon withdraws and acts “as if he weren’t even aware I was there” (90). Hurt by Gideon’s rejection after making herself vulnerable to him, Eva declares that Gideon is “‘like one giant trigger’” and that she “‘just needs to stay away from’” (101). Eva falls back into her old patterns of avoiding difficult emotions and conversations. Their burgeoning relationship halts at the end of Chapter 7 and raises the question of whether their attraction to one another is enough for their relationship to survive.
