We report on an experimental and theoretical nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) multiple-pulse spin-locking study of the thermal mixing process in solids containing nuclei of two different sorts, I > 1/2 and S = 1/2, coupled by dipole-dipole interactions and influenced by an external magnetic field. Two coupled equations for the inverse spin temperatures of both the spin systems describing the mutual spin-lattice relaxation and the thermal mixing were obtained using the method of the nonequilibrium state operator. It is shown that the relaxation process is realized with non-exponential time dependence described by a sum of two exponents. The calculated relaxation time versus the multiple-pulse field parameters agrees well with the obtained experimental data in 1,4-dichloro-2-nitrobenzene. The calculated magnetization relaxation time versus the strength of the applied magnetic field agrees well with the obtained experimental data.