Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger
3
The noise started againat exactly 5 a.m.
Cassius stirred, lifted his face off the pillow, and blinked sleepily at the dark bedroom.
“Oh!” a voice shouted faintly through the wall opposite his bed. “Oh yes! Right there! That feels so good!”
Cassius groaned, jammed the pillow over his head, and pressed his face into the mattress. Alas, nothing he did could drown out the racket coming from the adjoining apartment. The man’s cries of pleasure intensified and were soon accompanied by a steady thumping.
Cassius swore and sat up, the bedsheets falling around his bare waist. He glared at the wall separating his apartment from his neighbor’s.
It’s a miracle that asshole hasn’t broken his bed yet!
The demon cat was sitting on his dresser and staring avidly at the spot the sounds were coming from, its swinging tail matching the tempo of the lovemaking happening in the next apartment.
Had he known when he’d moved into the building two weeks ago that he would be living next to a sex addict who liked to fornicate with a different person every night, Cassius would never have signed the lease on the penthouse. As it was, he’d hardly gotten any sleep since he’d come to San Francisco, bar the couple of nights he’d relented and slept on the living-room couch.
“Oh God! Harder! Fuck me harder, Morgan!”
Another man’s low grunts reached Cassius, the creaks from the rocking bed escalating as he pounded his partner and gave him exactly what he was begging for. Heat flooded Cassius’s cheeks as he felt a stirring in his own groin.
His neighbor only got loud right near the end, before he climaxed. And, for some insane reason, the sounds he made always quickened Cassius’s pulse and made lust pool in his belly. Cassius told himself it was because he hadn’t had sex in months. Deep inside, he knew that lie was starting to wear thin.
The first man cried out in ecstasy when he came.
A feral noise left the other man a moment later as he orgasmed.
Blood pounded in Cassius’s ears in the silence that followed. He could almost picture the two men on the other side of the wall in his mind’s eye, their faces flushed with pleasure and their bodies damp with sweat as they lay in each other’s arms. The ache in his groin intensified.
Cassius dropped his head on his knees and closed his eyes, his erection throbbing between his legs. He was about to touch himself when he became conscious of an intense stare.
The demon cat’s gaze was locked on him.
He’d had no option but to bring the creature to his place when he’d fled the sewers last night. Luckily, there hadn’t been any angels or demons among the Argonaut agents who’d surprised him in the underground chamber, or else they would have followed him when he’d escaped into the darkness. Not that they would have been able to match his speed in the air.
It had taken but a moment for Cassius to remove the magic bolt from the demon cat’s leg once they’d reached the safety of his apartment. The wound was already healing, the creature’s otherworldly energy hastening the process.
The demon cat meowed, its stare all knowing.
“Look, it’s because I haven’t gotten any in a while, alright,” Cassius told the creature defensively.
The cat blinked, its expression indicating it wasn’t buying that bullshit.
Cassius blew out a heavy sigh, threw the sheets off his body, and walked naked into his bathroom, his erection at full mast. He gritted his teeth and stood under an ice-cold shower for a good ten minutes until his body calmed down, all the while cursing his neighbor.
“Fucking Morgan and his fucking stamina.”
The demon cat ignored his mutterings while he got dressed and followed him when he headed into the open-plan living area overlooking a private, rooftop terrace and a dark San Francisco Bay. Cassius made a fresh pot of coffee, rooted around in a cupboard, and unearthed a can of tuna.
“It’s a good thing I did some shopping yesterday or else you’d be having cereal,” he muttered to the cat as he opened the tin and upended the contents onto a plate.
The creature perked up, leapt onto the table, and sniffed carefully at the processed fish before biting down on a mouthful. Both angels and demons had had to adapt to consuming human food when they’d first come to Earth. From the way the demon cat was chomping down hungrily, this was its first meal in days.
“I should call Joyce.” Cassius frowned faintly as he watched the creature eat. “You can’t go back there.”
The cat licked its chops, raised its head, and bumped Cassius’s chest affectionately, a low rumble leaving its belly.
Cassius narrowed his eyes. “You are not staying here.”
The cat yawned, exposing small white fangs, and went back to eating. Cassius swallowed a sigh and headed out onto the terrace with his coffee.
The sky was lightening on the horizon when he heard a noise next door. A man walked out of the neighboring penthouse and crossed the adjoining terrace to the railing overlooking the bay. Orange light flared as he leaned on it and drew on his cigarette, the glow briefly illuminating his features. He removed the stick from between his full lips and lazily blew out a trail of smoke.
Cassius swallowed hard.
The guy was a good six foot three, stark naked, and had the kind of face and body that would make most modeling agencies and Hollywood casting studios weep for joy. Cassius cursed his preternatural sight and hastily looked away, his neighbor’s arresting features and toned, muscular frame burned into his retina.
“Hey there.”
Cassius stiffened before carefully peering around.
It seemed the man had noticed him despite Cassius doing his best not to draw attention to himself.
Wait a minute.Cassius frowned. I dampened my aura. He shouldn’t have been able to pick me out at all.
The guy smiled, his turquoise-blue eyes twinkling in the breaking dawn. “You must be the new neighbor.”
He came over to the balustrade separating their terraces, heedless of his nakedness.
Cassius’s gaze skittered down the faint scar that cut across the man’s chest from his left clavicle to his right flank, before dropping briefly to his groin. His mouth went dry. An ache ignited in his lower body.
Fuck.
His neighbor’s dick was long and thick, just the way Cassius liked it. Cassius gripped his cup of coffee and did his best to subdue his stirring libido.
“I’m Morgan. Morgan King.”
Morgan offered his hand over the railing.
Cassius stayed put where he sat on a deckchair and glared at his neighbor. A lazy smile curved Morgan’s mouth. Cassius blinked at the luscious, pink curves.
Why does this guy have such ridiculously full lips?!
“I get the feeling you’re upset with me,” Morgan drawled.
Morgan’s voice danced across Cassius’s skin and raised goosebumps on his flesh.
Shit.
That was not the only thing his neighbor’s voice was raising.
Cassius shifted on the deckchair, hoping the gloom masked his growing erection. “You realize you’re naked, right?”
Morgan’s smile widened at his cold tone. “Is my nakedness bothering you?”
Cassius flushed. “I’m not a fan of exhibitionism. Also, do you make it a habit of having loud sex with a different person every night?”
Morgan blinked at Cassius’s scathing words. He burst out laughing the next instant, his teeth gleaming in the shadows.
“I’m sorry,” he chortled. “Did we wake you?”
Cassius frowned, more than a little incensed. “Our bedrooms are next to one another, so yeah, Mr. I-can’t-keep-my-dick-in-my-pants!”
Morgan grinned and took another suck of his cigarette. “Well, it’s hardly my fault my partners are so noisy in the bedroom.”
Cassius tried desperately not to imagine that sinful mouth wrapped around his cock. The way Morgan’s pupils flared slightly told him he was just as aware of Cassius as Cassius was of him.
“From the way you were doing that incubus tonight, I’m prepared to lay the blame completely at your feet,” Cassius said frostily. “And FYI, the women are even louder, especially that super model and the sorceress.”
Morgan chuckled. “Damn. You’re making me blush with all the compliments. So, do I get a ten?”
Cassius stared. “What?”
Morgan arched an eyebrow, his tone teasing. “Am I a ten on your sexual prowess scale?”
Cassius scowled. Arrogantfucker!
“If you’re asking if you deserve a medal for your stamina in the bedroom, you’re not gonna get an answer from me,” he growled, rising to his feet. “Self-important pricks who think they are the center of the world are the lowest of the low.”
Morgan winced. “Ouch.” His gaze dropped. A wicked smile stretched his mouth. “Somehow, I think you’re lying, Mr. Neighbor. That’s a pretty impressive hard-on you’re sporting there.”
Cassius cursed his own body and stormed back inside his apartment, Morgan’s low laughter following him until he slammed the sliding doors closed.