Xander, computer on lap, let out a long sigh. Through the open floorplan of their Flagstaff getaway, up its rafters and stairs, he called to his wife, “I found another one.”

He heard Lisa squeal with delight and come bounding down from the loft. She leapt next to him on the couch in an enthusiasm that he could feel, but never understand. For him, watching a video of his wife being virtually ravaged by another man didn’t elicit the same reaction as it did for Lisa. He saw the deepfakes that popped up on the Internet as an umbra of her fame, while she saw their creation as a barometer of her celebrity status.

“Is it any good?”

Xander twisted up his expression. “Uhmmm…do you mean from a production value? Yeah, it’s pretty impressive.”

She leaned in to whisper warm breath on his ear. “No, I mean is it hot?”

If he didn’t know her as well as he did, and been with her almost constantly during the film promotion tour, he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the woman pressing herself into his shoulder and the one being fucked in the video. This clashed with his own libido as the scene on the screen became even more intense and the deepfake Lisa more vocal in her encouragements.

Instead of answering, Xander turned the laptop towards the woman he loved. “You tell me.”

Lisa cooed, squirming as she moved in closer to watch. She was teasing him, he knew, trying to turn him on and make him uncomfortable, his blushing and fumbling in these situations acting as a strange aphrodisiac for her. Blood rushed through him till Lisa stopped cold.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Pause it,” she commanded, which he did.

Leaning in close, Lisa took a much more clinical examination of the video than he was accustomed. Then she pointed a chipped nail at the screen. “How did they know about that?”

“What?”

“That!”

Xander put on his glasses and followed her finger. When he saw it, it became impossible to miss. The video simulacrum had a birthmark in a very private area. A birthmark that, as far as they were concerned, no one in public knew existed. Both Lisa and Xander turned from the screen to look one another in the eye.

Xander snapped the laptop shut. “We really need to hire someone else to start scrubbing these things.”

See the author’s published work here.

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