Reflected in You

The second installment in Sylvia Day's Crossfire series, this novel continues the story of Eva Tramell and Gideon Cross, picking up shortly after the events of Bared to You.

Eva Tramell, a young advertising assistant in Manhattan, narrates her turbulent relationship with Gideon Cross, a twenty-eight-year-old billionaire CEO of Cross Industries, the company headquartered in the same building where she works. They have been dating for less than a month. Both carry severe psychological trauma from childhood sexual abuse, and their bond is built on intense physical chemistry and mutual recognition of each other's pain. Eva lives on the Upper West Side with her best friend, Cary Taylor, a bisexual male model. The relationship is passionate but volatile: Eva struggles with jealousy, and Gideon guards his past with near-pathological secrecy.

Early tensions surface over a weekend trip. They compromise on traveling separately: Eva and Cary fly to Las Vegas on Gideon's private jet while Gideon works in Arizona. In Las Vegas, Eva discovers Gideon has stationed a female security guard to chase away any man who approaches her. Furious, she retaliates by arranging for a male guard to shadow Gideon under equally restrictive rules. Gideon admits her defiance arouses him. He also reveals that he built his fortune counting cards at blackjack tables and leveraging the business contacts he made there.

A deeper crisis emerges around Gideon's ex-fiancée, Corinne Giroux. Eva learns that at a recent charity dinner, Gideon was managing Corinne rather than ignoring Eva. However, the next day Eva spots Corinne leaving the Crossfire Building looking disheveled, with smeared lipstick, and climbing into Gideon's car. Upstairs, she finds Gideon half-dressed and freshly showered, with a sofa out of place and lipstick on his discarded shirt. He denies involvement with Corinne but refuses to explain. Eva slaps him. He insists she trust him; she argues that trust requires honesty.

Their first couples therapy session with Dr. Lyle Petersen exposes the depth of their dysfunction. Dr. Petersen suggests abstinence to break their pattern of using sex to avoid conflict; Gideon flatly refuses. That night, Eva has a nightmare about Nathan Barker, her former stepbrother who sexually abused her throughout childhood. Gideon comforts her tenderly, underscoring the trauma both carry into their intimacy. He later proposes a new agreement grounded in mutual trust, even through disagreement. Eva accepts but fears losing herself in him.

The couple attends a Six-Ninths concert, where Eva is stunned to discover the band is fronted by Brett Kline, a musician she had a destructive six-month sexual relationship with years earlier. Brett performs a ballad that names Eva directly. After the show, he finds her and kisses her. She briefly kisses him back before pulling away, just as Gideon tackles Brett in a cold rage.

In the limo, Gideon demands to know why Eva kissed Brett, denying her release during a prolonged sexual encounter until she answers. Eva admits she did it to make Gideon feel the same jealousy she feels about Corinne. Gideon drives them to a beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a private weekend without phones or outside contact. During this retreat, they share critical confessions. Eva admits she once used sex as a substitute for love. Gideon reveals he seduced the wife of Dr. Terrence Lucas, a pediatrician who had interacted tensely with Gideon at the charity dinner, as revenge for Lucas's role in alienating him from his family. Most painfully, he tells Eva his mother did not believe him when he disclosed his childhood abuse.

Their peace shatters upon returning to New York. They discover that Cary was attacked Friday night and hospitalized with a skull fracture, cracked ribs, and a broken arm. Cary reveals his attacker told him to stay away from "her," suggesting the assault is connected to one of his sexual partners. On Monday, Gideon becomes cold and distant without explanation. Eva discovers he has been dining publicly with Corinne. She writes him a desperate email, and he comes to her in darkness, admitting he is equally miserable but insisting the situation cannot change. The encounter feels to Eva like a farewell.

Eva's father, Victor Reyes, a California police officer, visits New York. Gideon attends dinner with his teenage half-sister, Ireland Vidal, making a visible effort to appear approachable. During the meal, two NYPD detectives arrive and reveal that Nathan Barker has been found dead. Victor, recognizing the nature of the questioning, shuts down the interview and insists any further contact go through an attorney.

Eva's mother then reveals that Nathan had approached Eva's stepfather, Richard Stanton, demanding two and a half million dollars in exchange for photographs and video of Eva's childhood abuse. Eva concludes that Gideon must have seen the materials, explaining his withdrawal. She calls Gideon, tells him she understands why he cannot be with her, and says goodbye. She returns his ring and apartment key, throws herself into work and Krav Maga training, and tries to move forward. During the separation, Brett Kline contacts Eva and asks for another chance, but she firmly tells him she is in love with Gideon.

On day eight of the separation, Gideon stops Eva in an elevator, tells her she is beautiful, slides her ring back onto her finger, and asks her to wait. Eva then investigates the people in Gideon's life. She confronts Corinne and deduces that Corinne deliberately made herself look disheveled the day Eva saw her leaving the Crossfire, knowing Eva would be watching. She accuses Dr. Lucas of concealing evidence of Gideon's abuse during childhood medical examinations. She confronts Gideon's mother, Elizabeth Vidal, at a social event, telling her that refusing to believe her son's disclosure deepened his suffering.

Gideon tracks Eva after her visit to Dr. Lucas. In his car, Eva tells him she needs him to let her inside emotionally. Gideon describes his childhood: After his father's suicide, his mother remarried quickly. His mother and stepfather brought in a therapist and a male doctoral candidate the therapist supervised. As the therapist focused on his mother, the candidate was left alone with the boy and began sexually abusing him, escalating from contact disguised as anger management to assault. Eva holds him as he shakes, telling him she believes him, that it was not his fault, and that she loves him. Gideon says he loves her for the first time and asks her to wait.

The final revelation comes from Detective Shelley Graves, who approaches Eva off-duty. Graves believes Gideon killed Nathan but will never prove it. Her theory: After Nathan attacked Cary to intimidate Gideon, Gideon perceived Eva to be in mortal danger. He orchestrated the separation to eliminate his motive, staged a public return to Corinne, and used a vodka publicity event as his alibi. A kitchen fire at the event hotel created a window for Gideon to reach Nathan's nearby hotel, owned by a Cross Industries subsidiary whose security cameras were down for a scheduled upgrade, and kill Nathan. Graves has burned her notes. Nathan's hotel room contained obsessive surveillance materials confirming the threat he posed.

Eva goes to Gideon's apartment and waits outside his door. When he arrives, she tells him the case has been dropped. He sinks to his knees, and Eva kneels with him. He asks where they go from here, and she tells him they will face whatever comes, together. The story continues in Entwined with You.