Read Online Ouroboros 2: Before by Odette C. Bell - Free Book Online

nodded.
    Feeling a little cold, she brought up her hands and ran them over the long sleeves of her top. She couldn’t help but smile. ‘The Vex are a strange race, I’ll give them that, but they do make some very beautiful clothing,’ she commented as she assessed the embroidery on her top.
    Carson sniggered.
    There was no other way to describe it.
    She pressed her lips together and looked at him enquiringly. ‘What? Do you have a problem with embroidery? Is it too soft for the heroic Carson Blake?’
    He shot her a steely look, but promptly shook his head and sniggered again. ‘I think I figured out why that guy from last night was . . . inappropriate,’ Carson managed, his voice growing stiff.
    She shivered slightly, but tried to hide it by tucking her hair behind her ears. ‘Why?’
    ‘ Because you are dressed like a prostitute,’ Carson said blankly.
    She spluttered. ‘Excuse me?’
    Carson picked up the scanner that was beside him, and started playing with it. ‘I’ve been amassing as much information as I can from radio and television waves, and the scanner has been doing its best to put it all into a navigable database. And a Bride of the Sun,’ he cleared his throat properly, ‘is a high-class prostitute. When you concocted that disguise at the building, I shudder to think what you used as a reference.’
    She could feel her cheeks turning incandescent red. ‘You’re making this up,’ she challenged.
    He shook his head, and started laughing again. ‘I wish I was, but I’m not.’
    She crossed her arms defensively in front of her chest, as if she was trying to hide it, which was dumb, considering she was exceedingly well dressed. ‘I am clothed from head to foot. That’s hardly the garb of a . . . prostitute,’ she finally said.
    ‘ Maybe not where we come from, but here, I’m afraid it is. We might have to look into getting you another set of clothes.’
    ‘ So if I’m dressed as a prostitute, what are you dressed as? A gigolo?’ She looked at him pointedly.
    ‘ No, I’m dressed as a simple farmer boy, merchant, or man of the lower socio-economic class.’ Carson shrugged his shoulders.
    She still had her arms crossed defensively in front of her chest, and suddenly felt like it would take a crowbar and a team of muscle bound aliens to pry them free. ‘You better not be making this up,’ she warned.
    ‘ I’m not,’ he said in a serious tone. ‘Because I wouldn’t,’ he added.
    He was no longer laughing, he wasn’t even smiling cheekily, so Nida gave up and sighed. ‘ I guess I am the worst recruit in 1000 years. I thought I’d done a good job with these disguises,’ she sighed again.
    ‘ Don’t beat yourself up,’ he said smoothly. ‘We all make mistakes.’
    She spluttered through a laugh. ‘I’m sure we do, Carson Blake, but I really doubt you have ever gone to an alien planet and dressed up as a prostitute.’
    He conceded her point with a shrug. ‘My point is, this is a complex situation, and we’re just getting used to it.’
    She let his words mollify her, then she finally uncrossed her arms and let them rest next to her as she played with her hands.
    ‘ Now we have a better idea of their culture, and we can miraculously speak their language, it’s time we head to town,’ he managed, breathing heavily through his words as if he were trying to garner up the courage to say them.
    She looked at him sharply. Though she had been the one to convince him they had to interact with the people of this planet to complete their mission, now she wasn’t so sure.
    Last night had left her unsettled.
    Maybe Carson could register her hesitation, because he scrambled to his feet and walked over to her. Without a word he held out his hand.
    She looked up at it silently.
    ‘ I’m not going to bite you,’ he said. Then he paused, looking momentarily cheeky as if he were about to make a joke, but he swallowed it.
    No doubt it had been ridiculously inappropriate, and