Chapter Six: Questions of Control
Brody
is “pleased and befuddled” to have received Hayden’s call, during which she
said only “Come over” (69). He dresses and as he heads to her hotel he wonders
if she has changed her mind about sex only. When she answers the door without a
greeting and only “I have some ground rules,” which includes that this is only
sex, I suspect he’s been answered (69), although he doesn’t let her actually
spell out those ground rules until she insists three times.
One
of those rules is that they aren’t to be seen together in public, and Brody
jumps immediately to “Ashamed of being linked to a hockey player?” (70). To
which I say, wait, what? Why would someone be ashamed of being seen with a
professional athlete? At least he accepts her explanation about it causing more
trouble for the Warriors and her father if they were found out.
Brody
counters her two rules with two of his own. First, she has to be monogamous
while they’re together. Hayden agrees to that with an “Of course,” which is
fair enough, but he doesn’t say anything about whether or not he’ll be sleeping
with anyone else (71). In her shoes, I’d get that clarified. Second, he says
that she has to keep an open mind, emotionally, that if feelings develop, she
can’t just run away. This seems to be a contradiction to her first rule (that
this is just sex.) I mean, it’s not a direct contradiction to the point Brody
is insisting that it already is a relationship, but it’s saying that if they
happen to break her rule, his rule means she can’t do anything about it.
Problematic
rules agreed upon, they spend the rest of the chapter having sex, as one might
expect. I mentioned in the fourth post that I thought referencing sex with
Brody in the same breath as tea with grandparents was a bit problematic. Here
Hayden says that his excitement to have sex makes him remind her of “a kid on
Christmas morning” (71). Let’s add analogies involving children to the list of
things that shouldn’t be used as couples prepare for or think about sex, okay?
As
they’re starting, Hayden reveals, in narrative, that she’s unsettled by Brody’s
terms. Um, Hayden? Then maybe you ought to have discussed them. Then the text
tells us that Hayden is “confident it wouldn’t go further than” just sex (71).
Except we know from all of her musings (during the shark and porno watching)
that she’s not confident of that at all. I supposed we could chalk this up to
Hayden’s vacillation between desiring sex and fearing commitment, but when the
narration’s perspective is third person limited, as with most romance novels,
it’s hard to handwave it away as an unreliable narrator. The narrator is still
omniscient as far as a single character goes (in this scene Hayden) and you
have to trust it. So if you believe she’s confident about this, then you have
think she’s quite flaky, since you also have to trust she wasn’t confident
about this an hour ago. Especially since in the intervening time, Brody made a
rule that they have to act on their emotions if any develop, which seems like a
silly rule if that wasn’t what he wanted.
Hayden
takes control of their play, telling a (naked) Brody to get on the bed. He
starts playing with himself as enticement for her to join him.
There was something so kinky, so dirty about the way he was lying
there, stroking himself while she watched. And that she was still fully clothed
only made the situation hotter. It gave her the upper hand, reminding her of a
fantasy she hadn’t dared to think about in years. Scratch that—she’d thought
about it only yesterday, when she’d seen Brody at the arena (73
emphasis original).
If
watching a naked man masturbate on her bed is “so kinky, so dirty” then a lot of people are a lot less vanilla than they
think they are.
Hayden
considers telling Brody that she wants to tie him up, then reflects that she’s
never had the confidence to tell anyone that before, not even guys she’s dated
for months. And yet she’s willing to tell “her deepest, darkest fantasy” to a
Brody, whom she’s known less than a week (73). This apparently means that Brody
is special and different. I’d actually guess, though, that it would be easier
to tell a relative stranger, particularly one that (you’re telling yourself)
you don’t want to be with long term than to tell someone who already has
opinions about you and with whom you’re in a significant relationship. There’s
less risk in telling Brody than in telling Intimacy-Bridge Doug. Hayden doesn’t
see it this way.
Anyway,
she confesses and Brody says he’s turned on by the idea, so Hayden grabs some
pantyhose and uses it to tie Brody’s wrists to her headboard. (I would
personally think that using pantyhose might be a bad idea because the knots
would be difficult to untie. I mean, have you ever washed a couple pairs
without putting them in a lingerie bag? Getting those things separated is a
pain in the ass.)
Hayden
tells Brody that her taking control in this moment is only fair, since he’d
enjoyed torturing her at the bar the night before. As I’ve said before, I
really like this dynamic, that the heroine can be just as dominant as the alpha
male hero. (Also, I was going to say I like these power plays and I wondered
why the hell this book isn’t called Power
Play? It’s just as much a hockey term as Body Check and more relevant.)
The
question of control, brought up already in the first chapter (see post #2) is
played throughout this scene—not just who is in control of the sex (Hayden or
Brody), but whether or not Brody will lose control of himself. He warns her
that he doesn’t lose control easily and she takes that as a challenge.
On
the other hand, immediately after they discuss whose turn it is to be in
control, he tells her that he could easily get loose. This knowledge, at the
very beginning of their play, changes things. On one hand, it kind of means
that Hayden doesn’t actually have control over Brody, since he could be free at
any moment and take back the reins. On the other hand, it means that he is giving her control, since he could
choose to not remain in the position she’s put him in. You could see that as
the man giving women power that he could just as easily take back, so she’s not
truly in charge. Or you could see it as trust on both partners’ sides and that
while it may take a lot for Brody to lose control (spoiler! He loses control
when she goes down on him), and he may not like to lose control (as he thinks
about in the first chapter in hockey metaphors), he’s willing, for this woman
he’s falling for, to give control.
I
don’t know. What do you think?
Hayden
certainly thinks she’s in control.
Oh, boy, there was nothing more
empowering than driving a man as manly
as Brody Croft into sheer and total orgasmic oblivion
(76 emphasis original).
I
think part of the importance of Brody being able to get free also comes down to
the fact that this is a Harlequin novel written for a mainstream audience.
Can’t get too kinky, lest it offend. In fact, when she’s leaning over him at
one point, she “gripped his bound hands and twined her fingers with his” (77),
so readers don’t forget that this is about love not just sex (even though we
haven’t talked about love yet.)
When
Hayden unties him and tells him she wants him inside her, she expects him to
take back control “but he made no move to flip her over and plunge into her as
she’d requested” (77). (Well, no Hayden, you didn’t request that he flip you
over and plunge into you, you said “I need you inside me. Now.”) Instead, Brody
reiterates that Hayden is in charge and remains where he is. Apparently,
though, it becomes too much because before the end of the scene he does, in
fact, roll her over and take charge.
So
is this equality? A back and forth of who’s in charge? Or does Brody’s superior
strength and willingness to take control back whenever he wants negate Hayden’s
power?
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