✅ Taken: A Heart for a Heart

Chapter 1

          Tok-tok-tok.

          A young Xander rose from his seat in the kitchen and moved anxiously toward the door to his apartment. He peered through the peephole and saw his familiar face, small and distorted on the other side. He drew a deep breath; blew it out.

          "Hello Johnathan," Xander greeted him with a forced smile as he opened the door. His ex-boyfriend was a tall, redheaded man with a strong nose — a devoted man, but stubborn to a flaw. "Thank you for joining me tonight."

          "I'm only happy you are finally ready to talk about things, and... " he stopped to find the words, "and just see me, I guess."

          Xander moved towards the kitchen table, where half a cup of coffee was still waiting for him. He took a sip and let him hang on his silence. "I wanted more than to just see you."

          Johnathan raised his brows in surprise. "I thought you were angry with me."

          Xander stifled himself then. He was still angry. Furious. But he intended to collect on all that pain — tonight. There was a debt he was owed. "That's true. However... I miss you."

          Johnathan paused as he rose again and moved to stand intimately close to him. "Xander... I miss you terribly."

          "Kiss me," he said in the most passionate voice he could muster.

          Johnathan's mouth crushed his. He was disgusted by the neediness on display in how deeply he kissed him, how his tongue trailed everywhere it could, as if to take in as much of him as possible, for however long he would allow. Xander could feel how stiff his own actions were in comparison and tried his best to loosen up and seem sincere.

          He pulled away a short time later and looked up. Johnathan's eyes were already shaded and large with lust — it was a look of passion he'd seen so many times. He pressed his head against his chest and listened to his heart. Steady and resting, despite the kiss. Steady, as always.

          Sickening.

          "Johnathan."

          "Xander?"

          "Will you allow me this pleasure one more time?" He was deliberately flowery in his word choice as he looked up at him again. Johnathan was a sucker for such campy romance and he knew it would lower his guard even more.

          "Nothing — well, almost nothing — would make me happier," he responded in a low, husky voice.

          Xander moved away from him and extended a hand. "Come. The doctor will see you now."

          The first rooms down the short plain hallway were the bathroom and bedroom on either side, and at the end was Xander's very first clinical space. It was a place they'd shared and enjoyed many times together... and now, it was the perfect trap. He just had to keep up appearances long enough...

          "What's with the new panelling?" Johnathan asked as he noticed the sound muffling squares that lined every inch of the walls and ceiling.

          "Oh... well... you know how paranoid I was about the neighbours hearing the equipment," he half-lied. "So I just finally decided to put those fears to rest. Take off all your clothes, and lay down on the table. I will be right back."

          As Xander left and went into his bedroom to change, he wondered if this was something he really wanted to go through with. He opened the small pop-up closet he had specifically for his fetish outfits, thumbed over the 'office formal' complete with white coat, but ultimately went with a set of black scrubs to match the nitrile gloves and surgical masks he'd also bought in black. He also slipped on a pair of boots he purchased just for tonight, with a sole pattern completely different from any of his other footwear.