Love, Lust 'n Geology (1ST DRAFT)

Chapter 1: Wolverine

Hi:

I thank you sincerely for checking out my novel! The 'lust' in the title rears its head - no pun intended ;-)! - in chapter 3. So please read till then to experience its true flavour before deciding whether to carry on or not! Thx :-)!

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Chapter 1: Wolverine

Samina cast a casual look at her surroundings, wondering just what it was that their two field assistants, Chris and Phil, had against the place, The Bear Paw. True, the bar did appear to be housed in a barn, but then what did they expect in the wilds of northern Ontario? A downtown club? She herself would have preferred to save her R&R till her day off tomorrow, but an evening alone with Grant would have been insupportable. (Tagging along with Chris and Phil, all the way to Dryden, hadn't been much of an option either, not after the long field day she'd put in.)

She could never have imagined when she'd chosen Grant as her Ph.D. supervisor, that the friendly and charming man, albeit somewhat inept lecturer, whose classes she'd attended for the past year, would transform into a childish, self-absorbed, insensitive, impatient, control freak: a Dr. Jekyll in the university setting, and a Mr. Hyde in the field. They were only two weeks into their fieldwork, and already the two 'boys' had been on the brink of an altercation with him.

Grant had supervised countless graduate students. She had met several of his older students, who now held senior positions at the Ontario Geological Survey, and all had shown a fondness for Grant. Granted, they had also joked about his idiosyncrasies, but in academia being considered odd was almost a prerequisite to being recognized as brilliant. The most brilliant professors were inevitably oddballs! She just couldn't understand how his students could have spent months with him in the field, and still maintained such a congenial relationship with him!

As she mulled over the next stage of their fieldwork, her eyes were drawn to a boisterous group of men who were just cascading in through the door. They were of varying ages, and shapes, or rather girths, but one trait they all had in common was that they were uniformly tall. One, in particular, stood out like a beacon from the rest. He was handsome to the point of being beautiful. As Samina regarded him from a distance, it occurred to her that he might well be the handsomest man that she had ever met. Not that she had met him, or was likely to. And there was another thing about him: he looked oddly familiar. She couldn't immediately put her finger on it, but then it struck her.

She had never been one for actors and actresses. She considered it a huge waste of time. But there was one actor for whom she had a decided weakness. Perhaps it was because she'd grown up reading comics: Marvel comics. The actor was Hugh Jackman, and the man in her sights was the closest living facsimile of a young Jackman that she had ever seen. (She'd pulled up pictures of Jackman when he'd been in his twenties, simply out of curiosity. He had been beyond dreamy, and every bit the pretty boy!)

If truth be told, the man before her was even handsomer, possessing larger eyes, and fuller lips than Jackman. And the resemblance wasn't confined to his face. Even his height and build were similar, though he was leaner, not as bulky and muscle-bound as Jackman had been when he'd played Wolverine.

Mmmm. She hadn't known what to expect during her field season, but one thing she had certainly not expected was encountering Wolverine in northern Ontario. It added an exciting dimension to her stay. The excitement, however, was to be limited to her imagination. She didn't expect to actually speak to the man. However, she could easily envision conjuring him up, as she lay down to sleep in the cabin. Currently, that time was reserved for cataloguing grievances she'd accumulated against Grant over the course of the day.