The Disciple and Other Stories of the Paranormal (4 page)

We lay in bed together. I did indeed feel
better after making love to her for several hours. What I didn’t
feel like was normal. “It’s never been like that for me.” There I
went again, telling her things I shouldn’t, and wouldn’t
normally.

“
Really?” She sounded
hopeful. “I thought it was wonderful.”

I kissed her head. “So did I.”

“
Are you able to work
now?”

I thought about it. “Yes.” I thought some
more. “How many men have you slept with, in order to get what you
need?”

“
Oh, not that many. I
usually just have them take a cold shower while I put my parka back
on.” She shifted and looked at me. “I only make love to someone I
actually like. Like you.”

“
You barely know
me.”

“
Oh, I know you. I studied
up on you before I came.” She leaned her head on my chest. “I need
to find that place soon.”

We got up and dressed. I still wanted her,
but was sated enough that I could concentrate. She ordered room
service and we worked.

She’d been all over, to what I considered
the usual suspects in terms of heat – Saudi Arabia, Yuma, here,
Florida, and more places besides. “You know, some theorize that
Hell is actually so hot it’s freezing,” I said as we went through
her temperature requirements, which were at the far end of what any
human should be able to stand.

“
They’re wrong.” Ruby
pointed to Death Valley. “I haven’t been there. I heard that
Phoenix and Yuma were hotter.”

“
I think they are, at
least at some points in the year, but Death Valley is certainly an
option. Of course, it’s called Death Valley for a
reason.”

“
Well, let’s consider it.”
She sighed. “I don’t know that any well-known place is going to do
it, though.”

“
Do what? What are you
looking for?”

Ruby looked at me like I’d asked an obvious
question. “I want to find someplace where I feel comfortable enough
that I don’t have to be bundled up like a sausage every day. Even
in the room I’m not warm enough, and the cost for heating like this
is exorbitant. Believe me, I know. I have to make special
arrangements with every hotel.”

“
Your family has
money.”

“
True, but Daddy doesn’t
feel it should all go to the utility companies. Plus, I like to go
outside, and it would be nice to be able to do so without having to
wear three extra layers of warm clothing.”

“
Good points.”

We went back to work. I pulled up every map
of every region worldwide on my laptop, but she’d been to almost
every hot spot in the world already.

“
Why did you wait so long
to come to Phoenix?”

“
Oh, I liked the travel. I
truly hoped this would be the end of my search, so I thought I’d
check out my other options first.” She sighed. “No options and my
search isn’t over. Other than meeting you, Phoenix has been a
waste.”

“
Thanks.”

“
No, I mean it.” She
smiled, reached over, and stroked my hand. “I’m very glad I met
you. I enjoy remembering things, and I’ll always remember this time
with you.”

I realized she had absolutely no
expectations of a relationship once we were done with her case. I
was somewhat relieved. But I was also bereaved, much more than I
should have been. I wondered if there was some drug in her perfume,
but the truth was that she wasn’t wearing any. The only smell I got
from her was her own feminine musk. So, if a scent was making me
lovesick and lust filled, it was her natural one.

I hadn’t eaten or had a drink until the room
service arrived, so she couldn’t have slipped me some kind of
aphrodisiac. No, I was feeling like this because of her.

I went back to work. Somewhere in the middle
of the night we went to bed. I made love to her again, again for
hours. As we fell asleep I wrapped myself around her so she
couldn’t leave in the night.

We worked on her case for a month.

What she wanted was simple – a place as hot
as Hell. Ruby insisted she had no ulterior motives – she just hated
being cold, even for a little while. I didn’t believe her.

She was looking for a place that likely
didn’t exist. I got the impression she was looking for something
more than just a place to be warm. The pattern of her search prior
to coming to me indicated a search of ancient sites. She’d
exhausted those, then hit modern ones. I’d met her at the end of
that search. Now she was trying the uncharted regions, and I got
the distinct impression she was getting desperate, though she did
her best to hide that from me.

Finding places she hadn’t checked was the
hard part, but after a week I’d found some good, albeit completely
off the map, options to check out.

But I didn’t tell her that. Instead, I kept
on asking questions about her, her family, her wants, needs, and
desires. And I kept on making love to her, as often as I could get
away with it and still appear to be working.

My staff sent me daily emails asking if I
was ever coming back into the office. Ruby found these funny. I
didn’t know how to answer them, other than to tell everyone to
carry on and let me know if something vital needed me.

We didn’t stay in the hotel suite the entire
time. We went out, usually to dinner, sometimes to see if parts of
the desert would be warm enough for her. At every place, Ruby
insisted on paying.

She always pulled the money out of her
backpack. The money was always old, usually stained. Sometimes a
gem or gold piece would surface, almost always if we were dealing
with one of the Native Americans. She’d laugh, then put whatever
precious gem or metal had surfaced away and get paper money. The
backpack never changed shape – it always looked full, no matter how
many times Ruby put her hand in and drew out a fistful of
bills.

Ruby seemed to find my fascination with her
surprising. Not my initial lustful desires, but that they were
still going on. I’d given up asking myself how or why. Despite
knowing I was playing with fire, literally and figuratively, I
focused instead on how to keep her with me.

After a month, though, I couldn’t come up
with any more stalling techniques. The time had come to check out
the options I’d found for her. “We can check some of these places
out in person. You want to start with Death Valley or leave it for
last?”

Ruby blinked. “You’re coming with me?”

“
If you want me to. I
mean, some of these places are almost uncharted. You could get in
trouble if you went alone.” And I didn’t want her to leave, in case
I never saw her again.

“
No one else has ever
wanted to come with me.” Ruby sounded confused. “Why do you want
to? I’ll come back if I don’t find a place.”

“
And you won’t come back
if you do.”

“
Nick, you’ve spent most
of a month in an undershirt and shorts. Is that how you want to
spend your days?”

“
Clothing’s overrated.” It
was. I liked seeing Ruby naked, and that only happened in bed or in
the shower. Otherwise, even in the room, she was too cold to stay
undressed. I wanted to see her naked every day, to watch her walk
around and see her breasts jiggle and her butt sway. I wanted to
make love to her anywhere, not just in bed under five blankets and
a down comforter.

She looked doubtful. “Well, if you’re
sure…”

“
I am.”

I left her at her hotel and went home. I
packed for a long trip, then called my assistant and assigned
cases. I waited for the longing to be with Ruby to abate. It
didn’t.