Dirty Talk to My Fake-Deaf Husband

I huddled behind the stairwell door, a tremor wracking my spine as I held my breath, listening to my deaf husband chatting with his buddy.

For five years, I was dead certain he couldn't hear a single sound.

Whenever we were in bed, I ruthlessly tore into him with the filthiest, most degrading teasing and humiliation imaginable.

But the laughter echoing down the hall right now was crystal clear.

He tossed his hearing aid in his palm. "As long as I'm deaf, she gets to be her true, unfiltered self." White noise blasted through my skull.

If his hearing had been back this whole time… exactly how much of the filthy things I whispered while clinging to him last night did he actually hear?

Chapter 1 Other girls secretly pined for their childhood best friends. Not me. I harbored pure, unadulterated hatred for mine.

I hated him for detonating mud bombs at my lawn party when we were kids, ruining my couture dress. I hated him for getting chewing gum permanently stuck in my hair in middle school.

I hated him for ditching class to hit up frat parties in high school and making me cover for him. Everyone else's childhood friends were literal golden retrievers.

Mine was like the manufacturer ran out of the premium stock and threw in a defective, sticky, freewithpurchase knockoff.

In all the years I spent running in the same circles as Cassian, I didn't get a single perk. The collateral damage, though? I could fill a dump truck with it.

Thank god he packed up and went abroad the second we graduated high school, giving me four glorious, dramafree years of college. But the universe has a sick sense of humor.

The ink on my diploma was barely dry before I found myself staring down the absolute last person I ever wanted to see again. The kicker?

My family was officially bankrupt, and my deadbeat dad was packaging me off into a convenient business marriage. "My hearing… it might never fully recover.

I guess that makes me halfdisabled now. If you're not willing to do this…" Cassian sat across the table, his head bowed.

The sharp, impossibly expensive tailored suit did absolutely nothing to hide the heavy layer of insecurity rolling off him. The arrogant, careless bad boy from my youth was gone.

When I didn't immediately respond, his knuckles turned stark white against the mahogany table. A raw, shattered look fractured his gaze. "I get it.

I'll tell your father we're calling off the—" Hold up. My brain slammed on the brakes. I finally processed the words that just left his mouth. His hearing was shot?

I practically lunged out of my chair, rounding the table until I was towering right in front of him. Parting the messy fringe over his ear, I finally spotted it.

The sleek, discreet hearing aid. "Does humiliating me get you off, Vivienne?" The vulnerability vanished from Cassian's eyes, replaced by that familiar, teethgrinding defensiveness. "How did it happen?" He blinked, momentarily derailed. "I blew up a hot plate in my dorm abroad.

The blast wrecked it." "…" "You…" "I'll do it. I'll marry you." I slapped my hand flat over his mouth before he could formulate another syllable.

Staring down into those stunned, wide puppydog eyes, I bit the inside of my cheek until it bled to keep from grinning like an absolute maniac.

My entire life, I had never once won a shouting match against Cassian.

I'd fire off one insult, and his machinegun mouth would rapidfire ten flawless comebacks right between my eyes. Screw it!

As long as I snatched out that hearing aid, I could assert absolute dominance over him in this sham of a marriage! "Cassian, are you out of your freaking mind?!" I covered my raw, stinging lips and shoved hard against his solid, carved chest.

He didn't budge an inch. Instead, he drove his weight forward, burying himself deeper. A sharp gasp tore from my throat. "Cassian! Stop moving!

Get off me right now!" He paused his agonizingly slow grind.

Narrowing his dark eyes, he tracked the movement of my lips. "I have no idea what you're rambling about, wife." And then, he ruthlessly set the agonizing pace again. "Jesus christ… put your damn hearing aid back in!" I blindly swiped my hand toward the nightstand, desperate to reach the device.

A scorching palm clamped down over my wrist.

He snatched my arm back, seamlessly threading his thick fingers through mine, and pinned my hand flat against the mattress above my head.

His feverish breath washed over the sensitive skin of my throat, sending an involuntary, electric shudder straight down my spine. I tilted my head back.

He lazily dragged his eyelids open. His irises were pitchblack pools of pure, unadulterated hunger.

When he spoke, his voice was a ragged, gravelly rasp. "You don't need to hear a damn thing when we're doing this, Vivienne." Right after sealing the deal at the restaurant that day, Cassian and I drove straight to City Hall and signed the marriage license.

I wasn't stupid, though. This was a business transaction. At the end of the day, we were just using each other to survive the social fallout.

I just needed his money to bail out my family's crumbling empire. There was no way in hell I was throwing away my entire future on a guy I couldn't even stand.

The contract was ironclad: five years.

Cassian was being suffocated by his parents to settle down, meaning he desperately needed a presentable, lowmaintenance trophy wife for the cameras.

And out of all the sleazy trustfund brats on my father's shortlist, he was the least repulsive option. A perfect, mutual exploitation.

The second the ink dried on the fiveyear mark, we were done. Cassian hadn't even blinked. He just took the pen and signed his name right on the dotted line.

Chapter 2 The night of the wedding. I lay stiffly on the massive marital bed, a delayed wave of panic finally crashing over me. I hadn't thought this all the way through.

He needed a presentable wife, and I needed a corporate bailout. But we were legally married now. This wasn't a child's game of house. Did we actually have to… do that?

My mind spiraled until the drumming of the shower shut off.

The bathroom door clicked open, and Cassian stepped out, wearing nothing but a white towel slung dangerously low on his hips. Thick steam drifted out behind him.

His wet hair wasn't blown dry, messy strands sticking to his forehead, water droplets trailing from the tips.

They slid down the heavy planes of his chest, carving a path straight down. I squinted, my breath catching in my throat.

Broad shoulders, sharply defined eightpack abs, and the powerful cut of his Vline disappearing under the terrycloth.

Before I could stare any lower, he started walking straight toward me. My stomach plummeted. Was he going to…? I swallowed hard.

Already?! "Cassian, I don't think I'm ready to—" As he stepped past my side of the bed, I squeezed my eyes shut and dug my nails into the expensive duvet cover.

A cool breeze washed over my skin. The heavy weight I expected never came. The closet door slid open.

Cassian pulled out a spare comforter, throwing a faint smirk over his shoulder. "I'll take the guest room." Excuse me? Was he rejecting me?

The pure audacity of it ignited a fire in my gut. "What is your problem?! We both agreed to this arrangement! Do you honestly think you're too good for me?!

My body is absolutely smoking hot!" "Who gives you the right to ignore me! Hmph, is your size really that impressive?!" I fired the words like a Gatling gun.

Cassian didn't even pause. He just kept walking. His hand closed over the guest room doorknob.

Seeing red, I launched myself off the mattress and tackled him straight from behind. "Do your damn husband duties!" Cassian whipped around, bewildered, just as my flailing leg hooked the edge of his towel and sent it dropping to the floor.

Half an hour later, as my spine slammed into the mattress and every coherent thought was obliterated from my brain, the realization finally hit me.

He hadn't been ignoring me to be an asshole. The bastard just wasn't wearing his hearing aid. Being married to Cassian was actually a hell of a lot easier than I expected.

We already knew how to push each other's buttons. Plus, by the time we tied the knot, he was officially taking over his family's empire.

He was out the door before sunrise and back after dark. All he left behind was peace, quiet, and an unlimited Amex black card.

Cassian downed the last drop of his black coffee, stood up, and adjusted his silver cufflinks. He grabbed a stack of folders from the kitchen island, already heading for the door.

I looked up from my oatmeal. "You've been slammed lately." The wall clock read barely eight in the morning.

Usually, after breakfast, he'd at least scroll through the financial news on his iPad or trade a few sarcastic jabs with me before leaving.

Cassian tugged at his silk tie and slipped into his Oxfords by the door. "Dad has a project he's pushing hard. I need to go monitor the progress." Dad.

Whenever he said that, he meant my father. Counting the days, this was already the fourth year of our arrangement.

And he was still busting his ass to keep my family's company afloat. The fiveyear contract flashed in my mind.

The words spilled out before I could filter them. "Our contract is almost up anyway.

You don't have to work yourself into the ground doing his bidding anymore." Cassian's hand froze right on the brass doorknob.

The temperature in the room instantly dropped to freezing. Chapter 3 Even though our marriage started as a purely transactional contract, we had survived four solid years together.

Telling him the clock was ticking down right to his face made it sound like I was kicking him to the curb after bleeding him completely dry.

Before I could even open my mouth to explain, Cassian cut in, his words tumbling out fast. "I'm buried in work right now. We'll talk about this later.

Right, I have a business trip tonight." "Text me if you need anything." Right before he walked out the door, I caught him unnaturally fiddling with his hearing aid.

A sharp, icy needle drove straight into my chest, leaving a hollow ache in its wake. His fingers brushed the plastic casing, a defensive reflex he never outgrew.

Did he actually think I was throwing him away because I was disgusted by his disability?

In the very beginning, my solid plan was to sever the contract the exact second the five years were up.

But over these past four years, we had synced up perfectly in nearly every aspect.

As long as Cassian wasn't traveling for work, we practically tore the sheets up every single night.

On his rare days off, he actually carried my bags while shopping, dragged me to amusement parks, and flew us out for random weekend getaways.

At first, I never really looked at him as my husband. We grew up together, so existing in the same space just felt natural, without any of that stiff, awkward tension.

Hell, after being tangled up with him for so long, there were nights I actually struggled to fall asleep without his heavy arm thrown over my waist. Like right now.

I was lying totally alone in the middle of our massive kingsized bed, staring blankly at the empty iMessage thread on my screen.

An irritating, restless heat prickled under my skin. He literally told me to text him before he left this morning.

It had been three hours since my last message delivered, and there was dead silence on his end. Shit. Did he get hit by a car?!

A violent shudder ripped through me, and I shot straight up in bed, my heart hammering against my ribs.

Last Thanksgiving, Cassian and I didn't fly back to either of our parents' estates. Instead, the two of us just stayed home and seared some steaks.

After dinner, we went for a walk down the quiet streets, wrapped together in one long, oversized cashmere scarf.

Spotting an ice cream truck parked by the curb, I immediately threw a tantrum, demanding a cone.

Cassian just ducked out of the scarf, tucked the thick fabric securely around my neck so I wouldn't freeze, and told me to stay put while he crossed the street to grab it.

It was just one stupid road. But out of nowhere, a car with blown brakes came barreling down the lane. Cassian wasn't wearing his hearing aid.

He was just walking back toward me, a wide, stupid grin on his face as he waved the ice cream cones in the air.

If he hadn't spontaneously jogged those last two steps to reach me… I couldn't even stomach the thought of what would have happened.

He had absolutely zero clue how close he came to dying, just smiling like an absolute idiot.

He shoved the cones into my hands, proudly announcing he bought one of every flavor so I could have whatever I wanted.

My own father couldn't even be bothered to buy me a damn ice cream cone. But Cassian?

He looked genuinely pissed that he couldn't physically rip the stars out of the sky and hand them to me.

I don't know if the sheer terror of that nearmiss scrambled my brain, or if Cassian just looked unfairly handsome under the amber glow of the streetlamp.

But right then, my heart slammed against my ribs. The current Cassian was a genuinely good man. Even if the teenage version of him was a complete bastard.

Bzzzt— The sharp vibration of my phone dragged me back to reality. [Cassian: Just got out of a meeting.

What's wrong?] The suffocating knot in my throat finally unspooled, dropping back into my chest. Suddenly, I realized there were some things I couldn't just type out.

I needed to say them directly to his face. By the time my flight touched down in Seattle, it was already the next morning.

There were no latenight tickets available, so I had to book the earliest morning departure.

The second I stepped out of the terminal, I got the exact hotel address from Cassian's assistant and ordered an Uber straight there without missing a single beat.

Chapter 4 What exactly was I supposed to say to him when I saw his face? Honestly, just keeping things the way they were didn't seem so bad.

Cassian was a surprisingly solid partner. We knew everything about each other's pasts.

Sure, he was deaf, but… in our circle, love was usually the last box checked on a marriage certificate anyway.

And I was actually… totally fine with spending the rest of my life with him. His abs were incredibly fun to trace. His jawline was perfectly carved.

And kissing him was undeniably addicting. Plus, the second I popped out his hearing aid, I could curse him out as viciously as I wanted.

What other man would let me scream absolute filth at him and just take it in pure silence? Cassian was literally the only man on earth who fit my exact, unhinged criteria.

A sharp pang of regret hit me for demanding that ironclad fiveyear clause. I had no idea if he'd even be willing to rip up the contract and just… stay married to me.

Gathering whatever courage I had left, I stepped out of the elevator. I shoved my hand into my trench coat pocket, pulling out my phone to dial his number.

A familiar voice drifted from the blind spot of the hallway. "Dude, are you literally addicted to playing deaf?" Playing deaf? I froze dead in my tracks.

Peeking around the corner of the wall, a familiar face came into view. It was Cassian's best friend. The guy from that charity gala a few months back.

Cassian stood with his back to me. He was lazily tossing the unclipped hearing aid in his palm.

Half his face was swallowed by the hallway's shadows, but the deep amusement in his voice was unmistakable. "As long as I play deaf, she gets to be her true, unfiltered self." "But your hearing fully recovered months ago.

You can't keep lying to her forever, man." "I'll figure it out." "Suit yourself, bro. But you better come clean soon.

You guys are married—hiding shit like this is just asking for a disaster." …A roar of static blasted through my skull. The rest of their words dissolved.

They walked off shouldertoshoulder, heading toward the conference room.

I violently threw myself into the nearby fire stairwell, gasping for air as I tried to process the radioactive fallout of what I just heard. Cassian's hearing was perfectly fine.

He was hiding it just so I could "be myself." He never wore that damn device around the house. I just assumed he hated the background noise and took it off to focus on work.

How the hell was I supposed to know his ears were perfectly functional?! I only let my worst, most unhinged behavior out because I thought I was in a soundproof bubble.

Did that mean he heard every single time I loudly farted in the living room?!

Even more horrifying—every single piece of utterly degrading, filthy smut I whispered in his ear while we were tearing up the sheets… he heard all of it.

I was midpanicfleeing through the airport terminal, desperately trying to catch a flight home, when my phone aggressively vibrated. "My assistant said you came looking for me?" Shit.

I forgot I squeezed his exact coordinates out of his assistant. My frantic pacing ground to a halt. I started babbling absolute nonsense. "I was just bored at home!

Decided to take a spontaneous vacation." "…What a coincidence." My grip on the phone tightened until my knuckles turned white. I stared intensely at the tips of my boots.

Cassian's face aggressively invaded my mind. Confronting him was the entire reason I flew out here.

But the sheer volume of dirty talk I had unloaded on him… He heard every single syllable. Screw it. We were still legally married.

So what if a wife whispered some filthy things to her husband behind closed doors? Was it a crime? Was I going to get arrested by the cops like a call girl?

I mentally slapped myself, taking a massive, bracing breath before speaking. "I'm at the airport.

Come pick me up." But I severely overestimated my own psychological resilience and shamelessness.

The absolute second Cassian materialized in front of me, a violent, scorching heat exploded across my entire face. Chapter 5 "Are you running hot?" I glanced up.

He was still wearing the exact same charcoal suit I spotted him in the hallway earlier. He exuded that effortless, oldmoney arrogance mixed with lazy exhaustion.

It was obvious he rushed straight over the second his meeting wrapped