Melting the Minerals Read online

  "Trey?"

  He gave no response. She took his pulse, and it seemed strong, but very slow. She put her hand on one of his knees and found the lower half of his inner clothing had been soaked. It was so frigid, it had started to freeze to his body. The thermal underwear shouldn't have been that exposed. Not unless he'd somehow managed to get himself submerged in water. And if that happened, Devin didn't know if he would make it.

  "I need something to cut with,” she blurted and ran to the kitchen. She haphazardly fished through the drawers until she came across a butcher knife. There was no time to lose. Devin knew if she didn't get that wet clothing off as soon as possible, Trey would be dead by morning.

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  Chapter Two

  Devin carefully began to cut at the legs of his thermal underwear. As soon as she got halfway up the right leg, Trey moaned. She looked up and saw him staring at her.

  "Are you conscious enough to help me get the rest of your things off?"

  He nodded and began to pull at the clothing. It took a few minutes of finagling the frozen underwear and lifting his body so Devin could either pull or cut it off his body.

  She tried not to look at his strong, nude torso and acted as clinical as possible. But he was an incredibly large man. All of him. Even though he was cold as any northern stone, he could put some of the men she'd been with to shame. In fact, some of the men she'd been with were phallic elves by comparison. Of course, those thoughts were entirely wrong for the circumstances, but everything she'd felt about Trey up to this point was equally as inappropriate or sexually instigated. Again, her logical mind made a note of this fact and Devin began to believe she might be losing whatever was left of her academic control.

  With determination to act as a rescuer and not as a woman besieged with animalistic, lustful urges, she grabbed at the edges of the wool throw and pulled it tighter around his shoulders. Then she began to pile on more blankets. In order to treat his rapid loss of body heat as he had hers earlier, she questioned Trey about his actions.

  "What the hell happened? How did you get so wet?"

  "On t-the way back ... f-fell into the damned fish pond."

  "Isn't it frozen over?"

  He shook his head. “Right now, it's only frozen thick at the edges. The c-centre ice is more brittle. I-It broke through when I stepped onto it. But I was only in the water a couple of seconds before I got out. Luckily for me it's very shallow. I-I lost my lantern but found my way back, thank God.” He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly and let the fireplace warm him sufficiently so he could talk plainly. “Damned stupid thing to do. I, of all people, should know better."

  "Are you going to be all right or should we get you to a hospital?"

  "No sense trying to drive in that crap out there. D-damned stupid thing to do,” he repeated. He took several more deep breaths before continuing and felt the warmer air of the cabin enter his lungs. “Dug that pond last summer. I wasn't supposed to be that far south of the generator shed, but I got lost in the snow. The guide wire I put up from the cabin snapped. The pond is just one of those little ornamental things. You know?"

  She grinned. “Yeah, I think I know. Is it like a garden pond?"

  "Yes. Luckily, I did get the generator on just before that happened."

  "Look, I saw some radio equipment upstairs,” Devin announced. “Maybe I should call somebody and let them know you've suffered exposure. They could send help—"

  "No! Don't do that. If you radio for help, somebody from my detachment is going to dispatch some poor emergency medical technician. He'll end up putting himself or his crew at risk for no good reason. I'll be okay in a couple of minutes."

  "Okay, macho man. But if your core temperature goes down, you could be in real trouble. That's what you told me, isn't it?"

  "Is that the same core with the fluid outer core around the solid inner one?"

  She stared at him for a moment. “I thought I might have said something ridiculous to you earlier. Was that what I told you?"

  "Yeah.” He shot her a lopsided grin and tugged playfully at a strand of her long blonde hair.

  She checked the pulse on his left wrist. “You seem to be coming around rather well. But no more trips outside, okay?"

  "Won't need to as long as the space heaters and fireplace are doing their thing. Which reminds me ... before the temperature in here drops too much more, can you turn on the heaters? There's one unit in the bedroom upstairs, and one in the kitchen. We can move them from room to room, if we need to."

  Devin got up to do as he asked.

  Trey sat on the sofa, pulling blankets around his body. At least Devin had the sense to bring them to him and hadn't panicked about every little thing like some women he'd known. In fact, she seemed very capable as well as beautiful. Her response was unlike what the last woman in his life would have done.

  When Devin returned, he cast her a sheepish look. “Sorry about this."

  "Why are you sorry? It was an accident, Trey. It could have happened to anybody. Now what I did was pure stupid. I was just in a hurry to get here and didn't take precautions."

  "Okay, we can sit and debate over who's more ignorant, or we can say you and I are even. I saved your life and you saved mine.” He held out his hand. “Shake?"

  She put her hand in his grasp and exhaled sharply when she felt his cold skin. “We'd better get you warmer."

  For a moment, Trey said nothing. He just let her fuss with the blankets and gratefully let her tuck them around his body. He even sat there while she threw more wood on the fire. When she finished that small chore and sat beside him again, he sent her what he hoped was a playfully lecherous glare.

  "You know, sharing body heat is the best way to warm up."

  She burst out laughing. “How did I know that was coming? Why did I think that would eventually end up in a conversation?"

  "You. Me. Alone. Cold. What else is there to do?"

  She stared at him for a moment and tried not to laugh at his wagging eyebrows and the soulful expression on his face. “What if I'm married, Sergeant MacKenzie?"

  "Let me use my deductive police powers for a minute.” He paused and made a big show of thinking by stroking his chin. “You came here alone after admitting you were looking for new employment, and there's no wedding ring on your hand. Guess I just put two and two together."

  "All right, sport. But you don't know I'm not engaged or something."

  He looked her over. “Anybody who'd let you leave him behind is an ass. Now, it could be that you're running from somebody or something and that's the real reason you left in such a hurry."

  She put one arm on the back of the sofa and gazed at him. “Go on, Sherlock. I want to hear my deep dark motives."

  "I figure you were being sexually harassed by your boss. You couldn't take it anymore, so you hit the road. Is that it?"

  She pursed her lips to keep from laughing. “No. Try, I lost my grant money and had to have another job. I haven't had my PhD long enough to have tenure. And jobs at universities, for somebody in my profession, are scarce. They don't pay much, either."

  "And what about all those broken hearts you left behind?"

  She cleared her throat and pushed her hair back with one hand. “In my profession, men don't take a woman who looks like me too seriously. In short, they blow me and my work off. And anytime I found someone I might be able to relate to, they run pretty quickly when I start conversing. I have a knack for boring the hell out of people with my obsession for work."

  "You could bore me any time you wanted to,” Trey told her. “I'd sit and listen to anything you wanted to say."

  "For hours?"

  "Days. Even weeks."

  She snorted. “How very gallant. But you'd get tired of hearing about plate tectonics and other various aspects of geomorphology. Sooner or later, you'd be like all the other men and want me to just shut up so you could screw me.” She hadn't meant to say it in such a sarcastic way, or t
o use such a virulent tone, but the emotion came out with all the tact of a hammer on glass.

  Trey stopped the joking banter and stared at her. “I guess you think a guy like me would be too ignorant to want to listen? Just a poorly paid, underachieving civil servant without a clue?"

  Devin sat up when his voice took on a terse aspect. “No, of course not. It's just that if you're not into my field of work, the terminology of it really is difficult to listen to. Sort of like an accountant talking about numbers all the time. And even people in my field, who aren't trying to get in my pants, get tired of hearing me. I'm a windbag sometimes. And I know I sound like I've got an ego the size of an orbiting planet where my looks are concerned. But I'm just telling you how it goes. Either I'm boring and beautiful or I'm just boring. That's what I've been told by people who should know."

  Trey sat and stared into the fire, unwilling to continue the conversation. One woman in his life had left for the very reasons he'd mentioned. The words he'd spoken about his being ignorant had been his ex-wife's. All he'd left out was the part about his being “just one developmental level below an ape.” That was when his ex had begun to get bored with living in Cedar Springs. But it hadn't taken her long to find some outside amusement.

  As if trying to change subjects and get their meagre relationship back to its former congeniality, Devin pointed to the quartz crystal lying on the coffee table. “Hey, I was upstairs and saw your mineral collection. Why didn't you tell me you were a rockhound like me?"

  "A what?"

  "That's what people call anybody who collects minerals and semi-precious stones. They're referred to as ‘rockhounds'."

  Trey stared at the piece of quartz and half-smiled. His amateurish interest in mineral collecting had been cut off when his former wife took off with another man. That was one of many things she'd hated about him. Mineral collecting was something ‘nerds do'. “I guess I didn't mention it because you, as a geopalaeontologist, wouldn't find a minor rock collection that interesting. It's just a hobby."

  She sat forward and picked up the piece of quartz. “Are you kidding? I have a great collection in my truck. I'd like to compare notes sometime. You have some really fine specimens.” She momentarily studied the specimen in her grasp. “I wondered, why don't you put them out where people can see them?"

  "Like you said. Some people find things like that boring. At least one person sure did.” The last part he harshly mumbled under his breath. He hadn't meant to say it at all, but it was out now. For some reason, he'd blurted out something that was personal, just as Devin had.

  She considered him for a moment. “You know, that was spoken like somebody who's had a relationship problem. I'm beginning to see some light in the woods here."

  Trey looked at the quartz crystal she pointed at him. “What's that supposed to mean?"

  "Like you, I have some pretty perceptive powers of observation. And if you don't mind my saying so, a man like you could have any woman he wanted. But you're living in this cabin all alone. And what you just said makes me believe you had a serious relationship problem with somebody."

  Trey held up one hand to stop the conversation. “That's enough. My personal life is my business and no one else's."

  "Oh, it's okay to pick my personal life apart, but yours is off limits?” She sighed heavily and leaned towards him. “Look, we're going to be stuck here for a while. I've told you about me. Why don't we talk about you for a while?"

  Trey leaned his head back, closed his eyes and got it over with. “If you must know the tedious details, I was married for about a year and a half. She took off with another man while I was on duty. That was almost a year ago, and it's good riddance to bad garbage as far as I'm concerned. She found me useless, and I found her used. I put her out the door when I discovered she was cheating on me. While we were together, we fought over everything. Including that damned rock collection. She thought it was a ridiculous thing for a grown man to be doing. That's why it's up in the radio room, out of sight. I put it there so I wouldn't have to listen to her bitch."

  "I-I'm sorry, Trey."

  He waived a hand in dismissal. “Don't be. Working around Cedar Ridge, you'd have found out about it sooner or later. In a place this small, gossip gets around. Everybody in this entire valley knew, and couldn't wait to tell me how she'd been fucking the town's only attorney behind my back. Funny thing is, nobody would tell me at the time. I feel pretty stupid for not having realised what was going on. That's what I get for trusting her."

  Devin sat there, trying to find something appropriate to say. “If I were you, I'd put the mineral collection right where you want it. She's gone, right? I mean, I could understand if it brings back some painful memories, but she's not here. This is your home. You should do what you want.” Not very psychologically based, but that's all Devin could think of.

  Trey slowly turned his head towards her. “You're right. I can do any damned thing I want in my own home. She's in Alberta. I don't have to give a rat's ass about anybody's opinion. Not anymore, and certainly not when I'm off duty."

  Seeing the look on his face, as if he was just realising he had his freedom, Devin wondered what was going on in his mind. He looked like somebody who'd just come up with a life-altering metamorphosis. She could almost see the light bulb glowing over his head.

  Trey leaned towards her, put his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her towards him. “So, you're a professional rockhound, eh? All that intelligence, and a rack a man would give his eyeteeth to put his hands on. You want me to do what I really want? Okay, how is this for starters?” Trey kissed her hard.

  Devin didn't even want to put up a fight. She opened her mouth, let him put his tongue halfway down her throat, and vowed to enjoy every minute she could. They were adults and knew what they were doing. Neither had anyone to whom they owed an explanation, so let the chips fall where they would. He was far too attractive to ignore. Especially since she'd seen far more of his body than she rightly should have, given their lack of time together. Some cosmic force had put them right where they were, so why fight it?

  Trey finished the kiss, but kept his forehead against hers. “Sorry for unloading all that personal crap. But it's been a long time since I could talk to anybody about it. And you did ask me to tell you something about myself."

  "I'm not sorry. In fact, I'll be living in the area. That sort of makes us neighbours. And it's like you said. Somebody would have gossiped about it sooner or later, once they got to know me. And once they found out that I know you.” She looped her arms around his shoulders and leaned towards him.

  Trey closed his eyes as she planted small kisses on his throat and moved up to take his earlobe in her mouth. “I hope you don't think I brought you here to seduce you? That wasn't my intention."

  Devin leaned back and gazed into his eyes for a moment. “I was hoping you would, actually. I haven't been with a man in a long time."

  "Dammit, Devin! Don't tell me something like that when I'm sitting here with no clothes on. You might get your wish. You're a beautiful woman who happens to be stuck in a cabin out in the middle of nowhere with me."

  She slipped her hand inside the blankets and slid it over his chest. “I'll only offer once. Going, going..."

  Trey moaned and pulled her to him. “Let me get warmed up better. I don't think it'll take that long. If you still want me after I've had a few minutes to get ready, then I'm all yours."

  "Just don't let me talk too much about my work. If I do, I'll put you to sleep,” she quipped.

  "Honey, even though I'm still sitting here thawing out, I don't think I'm going to feel like sleeping for quite some time. You can talk about anything you want. The damned men you've been with had to be trolls not to want to listen."

  "I found out some of them probably never grew in a womb but evolved from lower life forms. But never mind those other men. Let's just get on with this.” She paused and looked over his exposed chest and broad shoulders. “You're going
to think I'm some kind of pervert, but I've been checking out your bod. Really nice work, Sergeant."

  Trey laughed. “Not so bad yourself, Doctor Wallace.” He put his hands on either side of her breasts and gently pushed them together. “Take off your sweater."

  Without hesitation, Devin did as he asked. Then, she pulled off the thermal top, exposing her black lace bra.

  Trey ducked his head beneath her chin and began to kiss his way down her cleavage. When he found the hook and released her tits, he pulled back far enough to get a good look. They were round, very full, but pert. They were the kind of breasts that would bounce when she rode on top of him.

  Then a thought came to him. He dragged one hand through his hair. “Son-of-a-bitch!"

  "What's wrong?” Devin murmured. “Don't stop touching me. It felt good."

  "Honey, I don't have any condoms. At least I haven't bought any in a long time. After my divorce, I swore off women for a while."

  Devin put one hand to her hair and pushed it back in frustration. “Are you sure?"

  "If I've got any, they'd be upstairs in the medicine cabinet. I don't remember seeing any, not that I was looking for them."

  "Stay put. I'll go look.” She stood up, wrapped the wool throw around her shoulders, and picked up the lantern.

  Trey watched her go, and realised they could still play with each other minus the condoms. But the lower part of his body was beginning to respond alarmingly well, and the effects of the cold would soon be gone. In a few more minutes of foreplay, he'd have been quite erect. All he could think about was what it would feel like to be deep inside her, having her legs over his shoulders and crying out his name over and over.

  He dropped his head against the sofa and silently cursed himself for not keeping a ready supply of condoms. But how could he know a beautiful, seductive, willing woman would end up spending the night with him?

  The soft material of the blanket rubbed against Devin's nipples and made them even more erect. But she was a woman on a mission, and was wet to prove it.