Rebel of the Sands (Rebel of the Sands #1)(28)

“Or a blue-eyed thief.” Jin looked amused. “I ought to turn you in.”

“Well, you’re going to have your chance soon enough, because the army is on this train, and they’re after me just now. Or probably after you, but I’m in their way.”

Jin’s head darted up, looking back the way I came.

“Fine,” Jin said. “Give me the compass and I’ll get us out of here.”

“The compass?” I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting after he’d tracked me three days across the desert, but it wasn’t this.

“You’re too smart to play dumb, Bandit.” Jin’s eyes searched me, like I might be hiding his compass in plain sight.

“You’re mistaking my playing dumb for my thinking you’re an idiot for wanting a beat-up compass.”

His hand was clamped firmly over my pulse. “So we both know you took it. Give it back and we’ll call it quits for poisoning me. I won’t even ask you to pay me back half of the money for the Buraqi you stole.”

“I didn’t poison you. I drugged you. And that Buraqi was mine.” I tried to pull my arm free, but he was stronger than I was. “You stole it first. If you hadn’t set such a bad example, maybe I would’ve never stolen your broken compass.”

“Broken?” His hand tightened until it hurt.

“Yeah.” I struggled not to wince. He wasn’t smiling anymore. “I rode all night in the wrong direction following the needle on that compass, until the sun came up and straightened me out.”

I felt him relax against me. “If it’s no good to you, then you won’t miss it.”

“Seeing as it’s no good to me, why would I have kept it?”

“Amani.” He leaned toward me until I could feel the heat of him in the small space. “Where is it?”

I tightened my jaw. “Soldiers are coming.”

“Then you’d better tell me fast, Bandit.”

I didn’t speak right away. Our wills locked against each other. I wanted to lie to him. Tell him it was gone with the Buraqi. Keep making him suffer for refusing to take me with him in Dustwalk, for saying I wasn’t going to get to Izman in Sazi. For trying to keep me where I was when I was fighting so hard to break away.

“Amani,” he lowered his voice. A real note of desperation in my name. “Please.” My anger came apart with a tug of his words.

“It’s under my clothes,” I admitted finally. He let go of me.

I tugged my shirt up, too conscious of his eyes on me as I bared the skin of my hips to reach the cloth wrapped around my waist to pad it out. My hand slipped between cloth and skin and closed around the cool metal and glass. I let my shirt fall back into place as I pulled it out. The compass was a battered brass thing. The glass was scratched and chipped on one edge. The needle swung back and forth over a background of a blue sky the same color as my eyes, dotted with painted yellow stars. I’d figured it might be of value.

His expression shifted as his hand closed over the compass, locking it between our hands. The tension fled his body and he leaned his forehead into mine, catching me off guard. I could smell the desert on him. “Thank you,” he said.

His eyes were closed, but mine were wide open. This close I could make out the smallest scar on his upper lip. I was keenly aware of our breathing mixing in the closeness. It would take almost nothing to lean forward and press my mouth to that scar.

There was a crash and a shout from the other end of the carriage. Jin’s eyes flew open. What I’d been saying about the soldiers seemed to register on his face at last. “Come on.” He started to lead me out from between the bunks. “Let’s—”

White and gold flashed across the carriage, out of place among the dingy third-class passengers.

Too late.

There was no time to run and even less time to think. We needed to hide. Only there was nowhere to hide—except exactly where we were standing. I yanked Jin back toward me. My knuckles skimmed over the edges of the sun tattooed over his heart. That was the last thing I noticed before I kissed him.

His jaw tensed in surprise for a moment; his hand gripped my arm hard enough to hurt. And then his body was flush against mine, pushing my back against the wall of the train.

I was a desert girl. I thought I knew heat.

I was wrong.

The contact sent a rush through me so sudden, I started to pull away before I caught fire. But Jin trapped my face in his hands. There was nowhere to run to. Nowhere to go.

Nowhere I wanted to go.

I hadn’t really thought this through, but now I didn’t have any thoughts left. Only the strength of his fingers against my neck.

His breath vibrated through me until I couldn’t feel anything anymore except want.

More than want.

Need.

His thumb struck the place where Naguib’s gun had hit me. An involuntary hiss escaped my lips.

Jin broke away and the moment cracked. Cold air rushed into the gap between our bodies, filling the place his hands had been on my skin a moment before. Now they were planted flat against the wall on either side of me.

His eyes weren’t on me anymore. They were on the gun at my hip. I saw a flash of a uniform through the space under his arm. His body wasn’t pressed to me. Wasn’t wanting me, I reminded myself, only hiding me.