Deeper Healing

04| Reciprocal Love

Nikolai Coleman

I flipped through a page of the fulfilling novel I was reading, a sense of full satisfaction seeping into every pore of my body.

Reading was the sole means by which I slipped involuntarily, often helplessly, into another person's skin, soul and voice.

It fuelled my imagination to operate at its full creativity level and gave me an imaginary taste of what true pleasure felt like, a picture of the little things that made my body hum to life and a vivid representation of all the wickedly sinful things I yearned to do to a woman's body.

The constant irritating tapping on the cover of the novel made my skin crawl and drew me away from the delicious sensations that had begun spreading through my body. I scrunched up my face and cocked an eyebrow.

"One more skittle and this book might turn into a lethal weapon," I muttered authoritatively under my breath, my eyes glued to the words printed on the paper.

A smirk resounded from across the room and I held onto the novel a little bit tighter, preparing myself for what was coming my way and how I'd befittingly respond to it. The skittle came as expected, this time harder and more targeted than the previous.

Instinctively, I slammed it back to Alex using the novel in one fluid motion. He dodged it tactfully, his lips widening into a smug smile. "Oops! You missed," he bragged, popping candy into his mouth from the candy bowl in his hands.

"Are you always this annoying with everyone else or do you just love showing off when I'm around?" I asked him with a shrug, reopening my novel and scanning through the page for the last sentence I had read.

"It's a superpower only you seem to trigger, plus, how else am I supposed to get your billion-dollar attention?"

I shifted my gaze to him. "What do you want?"

Alex leaned forward, placing the candy bowl aside. "I have a proposition for you."

"Is it legal?" I asked him.

"Very much legal and it involves those fulfilling fantasies you love reading about becoming a spicy reality."

I shut my novel closed and shot my eyes up at him. "Are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting or this is just your hidden way of attempting to bond with me?"

"To make it sound less sappy, I prefer calling it me being the good brother you don't deserve looking out for you and helping you discover what you've either been missing or what you've been enjoying in secret for as long as I've known you."

"You just made it sound ten times sappier."

"To cut the long story short, come clubbing with me. It's private, wild and they have every type to spice up things a little bit in your boring life."

I scowled. "It's a hard pass."

"They have redheads," he pestered.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Alex rubbed his hands together, twisting his lips. "Everything that has kept you distracted and frustrated all week or do I need to spell it out for you, Nikolai?"

Confusion clouded my mind for a split second but it all made sense after careful thinking. I extended my middle finger towards him, sneering. "Fuck you, Alex."

I sat back on the sofa and buried my face in the novel, clearly indicating I had no interest in prolonging this conversation. Alex was the unquestionable representation of a typical nosy sibling whose guesses were almost always correct and facts annoying and infuriating but true.