Secrets and Sins

Chapter 32

~Beatrice~

Ava murmured quietly in her sleep, Beatrice stroked the hand not holding her book, through the younger woman's hair. Ava had fallen asleep within the first hour of their 5-and-a-half-hour road trip across Spain. The Halo bearer had made herself comfortable lying on her side sprawled across the back seat of the van, Beatrice's jacket draped over her and her head on the sister warrior's lap. Beatrice didn't mind, she rested her novel against Ava’s shoulder and enjoyed the pleasant warmth emanating from the sleeping woman. It was relaxing, well except for Yasmine and Camilla singing duets to whatever pop songs were on the radio, but somehow Ava managed to sleep through those anyway.

Up the front Camilla was driving and Yasmine was navigating. It had been decided that the Halo bearer would travel with the smallest entourage possible to ensure they flew under the radar. Lilith had warned them before she left that Reya’s attempts to find and control Ava would get more and more desperate the closer to the portal opening. Beatrice tried not to dwell too much on the warning, it made her heart race and her breath quicken to think about Reya hunting the Halo bearer.

Ava muttered again, a little louder, her face tensing. Beatrice frowned trying to decide if the younger woman was having a nightmare or not. She combed Ava’s hair back behind her ear and leant down to brush her lips against the Halo bearer's temple. Ava sighed quietly, her face relaxing again. Beatrice smiled.

God, I'm so in love with her.

"Naaaaw." The noise made the sister warrior flinch slightly as it burst their bubble of peace and quiet.

Beatrice looked up to see Camilla watching them in the rear-view mirror, wearing a huge smile.

"Eyes on the road Cam." Beatrice sighed; this had been a regular occurrence since the Halo bearer had curled up in her lap.

"Sorry, sorry." The nun answered, turning her eyes back to the windscreen.
"You guys are just sooooo cute."

"You two are pretty cute." Yasmine piped up from the passenger seat, looking up from the map she was studying to glance over her shoulder with a grin.

"Ugh stop." Beatrice groaned.

"You guys' teasing Bea again?" A sleep-addled voice called from her lap; Beatrice glanced down.

Ava rolled onto her back gazing up at the sister warrior with a smirk and winked, "Can I join?"

Beatrice really did try to fight the flush spreading across her face, but having the Halo bearer looking up at her like that made it nearly impossible.

“Awww you're cute when you blush. Especially when we’re in bed and I’m…” Beatrice cut Ava’s sentence off by covering the younger woman’s face with her book, thankfully Camilla and Yasmine had gone back to chatting about where was best to stop for gas, so had missed Ava’s remark.

She felt a slight shaking under her hands and when Beatrice removed the book, Ava was laughing so hard she could barely breathe, the sister warrior scowled.

Little shit. I’ll get her for that. Paybacks a bitch.

~Ava~

Ava was relieved when they finally stopped at a gas station, her body was stiff from the journey. There were only a couple of other cars on the forecourt, so Bea had decided that Ava would be okay to have a stretch of the leg.  Hoping out of the van, Ava stretched her arms up over head until she was momentarily blinded by Bea pushing the Halo bearer’s old grey cap down onto her head from behind.

"Remember don't draw attention to yourself Ava." The sister warrior gave her a firm look.

Ava made an offended noise, reaching up to adjust the cap so she could see more easily, “I’m not that bad!”

Bea raised an eyebrow at her.

"Fine. I'm gonna see what snacks they have. Do you want anything?" The Halo bearer asked, reversing towards the entrance.

Bea nodded, Ava grinned and turned away, bouncing towards the automatic doors.

"Something that's not full of sugar though!" Beatrice called from behind her, Ava gave her a thumbs up.

Perusing the shelves of the gas station, Ava began loading up her arms with all manner of confectionery, trying to fit as much chocolate and candy as she could into her arms. Eventually, she couldn’t hold any more so she gave in and marched up behind Camilla who was paying for their gas at the counter. Dumping everything in her arms onto the bench and dropping the bag of chips she had clamped between her teeth, the nun looked up at her with an astonished expression.

“Jeez Ava, is there anything you didn’t pick? I don’t know if Mother Superior would approve of your eating habits.”

“I was going to share.” Ava pouted, knowing the other woman would give in to her good old puppy dog eyes.

“Okay, but I’m telling Bea it was all your idea.” Camilla sighed, paying for the lot with the shiny new credit card, courtesy of the Catholic church.

Least the church could do considering how many times I’ve risked my life.

“Okay, I’m going to the bathroom, I’ll meet you out there.” Ava spoke before racing in the direction of the bathroom.

“Wait, you're going to make me carry this all back to the van?” The nun called out, but Ava pretended she couldn’t hear as she went through the restroom doors, grinning when she heard Camilla call her a ‘Little fucker’.

Ohhhh I’m telling Mother Superior on you Camilla.

Emerging from the cubicle, she washed her hands in the basin of the dimly lit bathroom, it wasn’t the dirtiest public restroom Ava had ever seen but definitely not the cleanest. As she stood with her hands under the air dryer, she read the poster above it about a local concert, humming quietly to herself, looking forward to her candy stash. The Halo bearer heard the door open and close behind her. She could tell by the sound of the person’s walk who it was.

“Hey Bea, I’m nearly done then we can hit the…”

Ava squeaked in surprise as hands grabbed her waist, aggressively turning and pushing her up against the wall beside the dryer. Bea captured her mouth in a bruising kiss. The Halo bearer groaned as she felt one of the taller woman’s thighs push between her legs, the friction causing her head to spin with arousal. When Ava pulled back to gasp in a breath, Bea immediately moved her mouth to the younger woman’s neck biting down on her pulse point.

“Jesus.” Ava moaned, wetness pooling between her legs, she did love when Bea was rough.

“Not quite.” Bea murmured against her skin, sliding one of her hands down to the waistband of Ava’s track pants.

“Yes.” The Halo bearer didn’t even realize she uttered the word out loud until Bea smiled into her skin.

“Better not.” Bea said, drawing her hand back.

“What? No.” Ava whimpered, reaching for her hand.

Abruptly Bea took her hips, pushing her firmly against the wall, bringing her thigh up hard. Ava nearly orgasmed then and there, her mouth falling open in a soundless cry of ecstasy, the sister warrior caught her bottom lip between her teeth nipping softly.

“Call this revenge for teasing me in the van.” The taller woman whispered, with a wide grin and then pulled away.

Ava nearly slid to the floor without the other woman’s weight pressing into her, legs wobbly from pleasure. Heart racing and breath ragged she heard the door open and close.

What the fuck?

The Halo bearer gathered herself off the wall with some difficulty, moving back to the sink she splashed water onto her burning face and tried to fix her hair to cover the hickey Bea had left on the side of her neck. Ava couldn’t believe the sister warrior had the balls to work her up and then leave her hanging like that, she was sort of impressed.

The Halo bearer’s phone dinged with a message from Camilla, telling her to hurry up. Ava sighed; she definitely didn’t look unaffected by what happened. Grumbling, she left the gas station and climbed into the van beside Bea. The sister warrior gave her a cheeky grin. The Halo bearer did the best she could to ignore her while she dug through the pile of snacks between them, as Camilla turned the van back onto the highway.

“You okay Ava, you look a little flustered?” Bea smirked, Ava was very tempted to throw the packet of baby carrots in her hand at the sister warrior’s smug face, but pushed the impulse down, handing them to her in a civilized manner, already planning her vengeance. 

Two can play at that game.