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“Yes,” I whispered, letting my fingers twirl around another strand of hair. “Youshouldhate me. But you don’t, do you?”

Jade’s dark eyes were blazing into mine, sending a thrill of heat down my spine. Jade could lie and say she hated me. She could lie and say she didn’t want to be with me.

But I knew her. There was something dark within her that I recognized. Some deep, wicked part of her called out to me. I knew she felt it, too.

“You can hate me, you know,” I whispered to her, closing the distance between us slowly and letting my hand move from her hair to the nape of her neck. “If that makes it easier for you, you can hate me.”

Jade’s pulse moved under my thumb. Her breathing matched mine, shallow and heavy. Jade and I were different in ways I couldn’t even count, but we were similar in so many, too. Being impulsive, for one. Being temperamental and wicked.

She didn’t stop me as I brought my other hand to her neck, too, lifting her chin with my thumbs and bringing my lips dangerously close to hers. “Fine,” she whispered back to me, letting my hands move as they pleased. “I hate you.”

“Youlie,” I hissed, and then my mouth crashed into hers.

CHAPTER7

Jade

My lips devoured his, drunk on his anger and fueled by my own emotions. I need him. I needed more.

I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.

I returned his kiss with an equally aggressive amount of passion, gripping his bare waist and pulling his body tight to mine.

It felt wrong. It felt so, so wrong.

But I couldn’t stop. Malachi was everything that was wrong with me, everything that I hated.

And yet, here we were.

His hands were strong on my neck, moving my lips so he could kiss me however he liked. I wanted to be closer to him. I wanted more of him.

His hot mouth moved against mine with anger, longing, and something else.

My hands grazed the lean muscles across his back, narrowly avoiding the base of his wings.

I was dizzy, completely infatuated with Malachi.

The King of Shadows

Myking.

I pushed against his chest, pulling myself away from the kiss. “Stop,” I said, catching my breath. “We can’t do this.”

“No,” he agreed, merely just to agree with me. “We can’t.”

But it didn’t end there. I closed the distance between us this time, practically jumping into his arms and wrapping my legs around his waist. Malachi caught me with ease, resuming exactly where we had left off.

I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.

I kissed him again, our mouths becoming one as he carried me to his bed.

This was crazy. I needed to stop it.

I hate you. I hate you.

Malachi tried to lay me back, but I stopped him, flipping him over so he was the one lying on the bed, his black wings powerfully displayed on either side of him.

It was a sight that made my knees weak.