Breakfast was somewhat tense at first. Both guys looked a little disheveled as they came out to find her cooking. After they started eating, things seem to resolve to some extent.
"I'm sorry you guys found me like that. I hate waking up that way. I'll try to avoid it in the future. I figured you know getting off in the morning would be enough, but now I'm not so sure. It seems to be worse this year than before." Lizzie broke the ice as she took another bite of eggs.
"It's okay, we just are still adjusting and everything. You have a lock on that door and we both will try to not violate your privacy from here on out." Kerry looked at her level and smiled. He seemed to smile with his whole face bringing a calm to her almost instantly.
"Were you having a good or bad dream?" Jeff raised his eyebrow and she wasn't sure if he actually cared about her well-being or if he was hoping for some more material to get off too. As always, Lizzie figured brutal honesty was the way to go.
"It was bad, they're almost always bad during the heat. You'd think they would be incredible sex dreams, but mostly it's being imprinted in some horrific manner or being forced to mate to some monster. I hate it." She sighed and looked down almost picturing those red eyes from her dream earlier.
"Does anything help?" Jeff's concern caught her off guard and she lifted her head to see a set of deep green orbs scanning her face for emotions.
"Drinking sometimes does, and sleeping with Tomas if he can. Otherwise, I just try to think good thoughts before I fall asleep." She smiled back at him and he laughed a little. "What?"
"It's just that I can't imagine Tom as the cuddling type. We never see that side of him." This was the first non-tense conversation she was having with Jeff and she felt her body relax as she looked into his eyes.
"He's always been like that with me, kind of like a big brother. When I was younger, I was so scared and he would just hold me for hours while I slept until the dreams were gone. I don't know what I would have done without him. Then, he was reassigned, but he kept me as a charge. I guess we sort of bonded together. Honestly, it's funny to hear you call him Tom. It makes him seem so...human." She smiled at him.
"You know I'm usually up a few times a night. If you ever need somebody to have a drink with or watch some crappy late night TV, just come find me." Jeff smiled at her and reached a hand across the table placing it on hers.
Lizzie felt the comfort of his heat and also a surge of her own pheromones. It was a tense moment, but was eventually broken as the timer for the oatmeal went off. She broke away and moved to start dishing it out. They ate in silence for a while, and it was nice. Lizzie sensed a change in the room as if she was really starting to belong there.
After breakfast, she went to grab a quick shower. Today she was due to hit the shooting range with Jeff, and she was pretty pumped. Kerry had confirmed that Jeff was better at this part than he was. Jeff had a military background and knew a lot about weapons of all kinds, guns being his favorite. Taking him up on his offer to show her how to use them seemed like a no-brainer.
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"Okay, that was a little better than the last clip, but now try holding your hands a little different. Here, let me show you." Jeff's hands were on her then placing her left and right hands on the gun in a different grip.
He had actually turned out to be an amazing teacher. The man had perfect patience when it came to guns. From the moment they stepped on the range, he turned into a different person. He was reassuring and allowed her to mess up time and again. Just loading the bullets had taken her a few tries to learn, but now that she was actually shooting, he was all about making sure that she learned this and learned it well.
"Alright, I see, so then this is better to steady it?" Lizzie asked hoping to learn from Jeff. His hands were crazy warm as they held on to her own.
"Yeah, now pull back with the hand while you push forward with this one. See what I mean?" Jeff's breath was a little heavier than she expected. Lizzie pulled the trigger watching the hole appear in the paper in the 7 circle instead of off to the side as it had before.
"Awesome Jeff, but um maybe you could back your own gun up from my ass." She couldn't help but notice that Jeff was rock hard and pressing into her ass.
"Shit, I'm sorry Lizzie...I just...being this close to you and all. Plus, the room is kind of small and we've been in here for a while."
"Jeff, look, I talked to Kerry about this while we were training. Unfortunately, I think you guys are going to get hard around me. I can either lock myself in my room or we can be adults and laugh about it. I suggested to Kerry that you both keep count and see who has more - like make a game of it, because otherwise this is going to be impossible and I for one don't feel like having a horrible month."
"Damn, how come I like you more every time you act like a guy? You crack me up. Well, I guess if you are going to have a sense of humor about it there's nothing else to do. So, let me see you load another clip and we'll try again."
"Thanks Jeff, that's surprisingly mature for you."
"Well, stick around, I can be surprising sometimes. But, you're right. If I'm not going to have a shot at you at least I know you aren't falling for Kerry, so maybe he and I will just have a side bet. I'm not going to lie though, if you ever changed your mind, I'm in. Otherwise, let's at least get you shooting bullseyes before you leave."
Lizzie smiled at him appreciating his sense of humor and strange maturity. He was actually really surprising her right now, and she wondered if he wasn't more than the shallow dick she had imagined. The month would tell she supposed, but firing his gun sure as hell was awesome right now.
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As the two weeks progressed, Lizzie felt more and more at home each day. She would spent time training with Kerry at least a few times a week, and also spend time learning to shoot with Jeff. They both turned out to be great teachers with patience abounding and she felt like she was really starting to learn to protect herself in more ways than one.
The feeling of belonging - of actually having friends for a change only increased as the days turned into weeks. Before long, she was hanging out with the guys and watching movies in the evening. That seemed to relax her, and they also were up for drinks anytime things were too tense.
When the nights were bad, Lizzie had started to wander the halls a little bit, and on more than one occasion bumped into Jeff doing the same. He explained that he had some PTSD type of issues and it made him restless a lot. They spent hours sometimes talking, playing board games, or just sitting in front of a movie. Lizzie really came to appreciate him, in a way she never figured she would.
With Kerry the comfort was more spoken. He was always willing to listen to anything on her mind, and offer advice where he could. They exchanged notes about research sites and interesting articles they found throughout the time the two would spend buried in their laptops in the library. She and Kerry had that in common, and she adored it. Tomas wasn't much of a conversation kind of guy, although he did offer her emotional support like neither of them ever could.
At the end of the third week, Lizzie had become completely relaxed around the two men. The tension they had in the beginning had now been resolved into a juvenile betting game. Any time one of the guys got a little too cocky with Lizzie, she just did the old magic and touched them a little too much or whispered in an ear and they got excited making her the victor. It was kind of awesome to feel like her heat was a weapon somehow instead of a curse.
She had gotten into a habit of jerking off after dinner so that she could hang out with them and watch TV or movies before heading to bed. It may not have always cured her breakfast heats, but for those sometimes she just showered and took care of herself beforehand. In any event, things seemed to be getting better. Something changed as the first day of her last week approached, and she felt the heat growing stronger.
It was one particular night that she fell asleep watching a movie on the couch. Kerry had gone to bed, but she had somehow crashed with Jeff. Perhaps, it was the several drinks she had with him, but in any event she had crashed out.
Truthfully, Jeff hadn't meant to fall asleep on the couch, but here he was waking up with Lizzie draped across half of his body. He heard her soft breathing and felt bad waking her up. They had been drinking, perhaps a little bit too much and both fallen asleep during Dumb and Dumber. Now, here they were in the living room of the bunker sharing a couch. A lamp across the room was on, but the TV was firmly on the menu screen for the DVD player.
Lizzie smelled so magnificent right now, and something about the way her arm was draped across him gripping onto his side made him feel so at home with her. In another life, he would have loved to date the woman, but he knew that wasn't a possibility right now. He couldn't even see her that way considering her express desires to the contrary.
She was cuddled up on him completely with her legs wrapped around one of thighs and her nose nuzzled into his neck just below his ear. Jeff took the opportunity to smell her hair and was greeted with an all too pleasant floral fragrance. He loved the smell of a woman, and Lizzie's was particularly intoxicating. His haze from the alcohol had already worn off, but he could smell a light scent of it from her breath as she lay there.
One of his hands was tucked behind his head and the other lay at his side. He decided to just stay there and try to fall back asleep, when he suddenly heard her whimper. His eyes opened focusing on nothing in the near dark. And, his ears tuned into her breathing, searching for signs of the nightmares she had described.
"Mmmm Jeff, yes right there." She softly spoke the words as she snuggled into him a little further.
Jeff's stomach tightened. He froze in place waiting to see if she was awake or sleeping. If she was awake, it might be his only chance with her, but if she was sleeping it would be a grave mistake for him to touch her.
