Free Kiss Me Twice by Jami Alden Page B

off."
    "You get off too," Mike said.
    Only with you, she thought. "That's not the point. I want someone to see me as a whole person, to actually like me before they fuck me."
    Her stomach clenched at Mike's cold smirk. "Isn't it a little late for that? Ever since I've known you, you've played guys, using their lust to get what you want. Why change now?"
    "I never played you, Mike," she said softly.
    His eyes narrowed and his lips curled in disgust. "Baby, I was the biggest fool of all." He took two menacing steps and grasped her by the shoulders, bending several inches until his angry gaze was level with hers. His voice was a menacing whisper as he said, "I actually had myself half convinced that I loved you, before you went off and fucked ol’ Jeremy."
    A raw sound of pain ripped from her throat. She didn't know what hurt worse, the ugly memory of Jeremy or hearing Mike mention love in the most scathing tone she'd ever heard. Her forearms came up, knocking his grip loose. "I didn't fuck Jeremy!" she yelled, loud enough that the wedding guests probably heard her over the band.
    "Bullshit! I saw you, Karen! I saw him on top of you—“
    "You saw him rape me!"
    Mike froze, his mouth hanging open. He shook his head back and forth, denying the truth. Her stomach seized, and she thought she might throw up. He didn’t believe her. She'd tried to convince herself that it didn't matter, but his incredulity sliced at her heart with surgical precision.
    "He raped me," she repeated as Mike stayed silent, still shaking his head. "You don't believe me now, just like you wouldn't believe me then, but that's the truth."
    "But I saw—“
    "You don't know what you saw," she spat. She willed Mike to say something, anything. He said nothing, his face blank, expressionless as his fists clenched and unclenched at his sides as he shook his head in denial.
     
     
    Mike barely heard Karen over the roaring in his ears. Rape? Jeremy? Could he possibly have been wrong all of these years?
    He looked at Karen, at the devastation and fury in her face. She could be a manipulative bitch, but she wasn't a liar. And if she wanted to make him feel like shit she had thousands of other ways to humiliate him.
    She wouldn't lie to him about this. Somehow every fiber of his body knew it.
    She stared, waiting for him to say something, but he couldn’t force any words past his lips. She whirled on her spike heel and ran down the path.
    He knew he should stop her, but her news rendered him numb.
    Snapshots of what he'd seen that night flashed in his mind, and suddenly small details snapped into focus. The way Jeremy's body heaved over Karen's much smaller frame. His arm, partly hidden by his torso, angled across her chest. As though he was pinning her down. From that position he could have easily covered her mouth, stifled her screams.
    Oh Jesus, he had seen it happening and done nothing to help her.
    He stood outside the bedroom and waited for Jeremy to finish...to finish raping her.
    And then he had pushed her away, treated her like she was filth when she'd been reaching out, begging for help.
    His legs were suddenly too wobbly to support him, and he staggered over to a bench. He hung his head between his knees, gasping for oxygen.
    "Mike, where the hell have you been? It's time for the toast."
    Mike looked up at his irritated youngest brother and new sister-in-law. Jake and Kit followed close behind. Kelly's scowl immediately morphed into a look of concern when she saw Mike's face.
    "Mike, are you okay? You look gray!" Lifting her skirt, Kelly rushed over and grabbed his wrist to feel his pulse and tilted Mike's head back to look in his eyes. "Are you on something?"
    "She finally told you, didn't she?" Kit said quietly.
    Mike looked at Kit, her eyes wide and serious, her full mouth bracketed by lines of tension.
    "Tell me it's not true." He could barely force the question past the lump in his throat.
    "What?" Kelly said, bewildered.
    Kit shook her head,