Hyeonverse: Monster

"Interesting," Merrick said in a low voice, looking at the cost/benefit tables the attractive man was showing. And then: "Have you shown this report to your Head of Department?"

Mindy and Travis fidgeted, looking nervously at each other.

"U... Uncle Merry..."

"You didn't. Did you, Travers? You bypassed the chain of command, undermining your superiors to try to score points with the head honcho." Merrick shouted at the couple. "You thought I'd be stupid enough to be impressed by your go-getter attitude, and what, that I'd offer you a promotion? A seat at the boardroom next?"

"S-sir, I was only..." Travis stuttered.

"'I was only what'? I was only what, Tracey? 'I was only hoping that I'd use my stupid wife to climb the hierarchy ladder?'" Merrick roared for the first time in well over a year, livid with feelings of betrayal.

"You thought you could coast upward through UpNorth Miller's nomenclature, riding on your pretty boy looks? Get the fuck out of my sight before I plant my shoe so far up your arse you'll be licking leather!"

Travis ran so fast toward the elevator he made a wind draft.

"That felt good," Merrick smiled, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders for the first time in ages. Mindy stared at her Uncle with tears pooling on her eyes.

"That was uncalled for; he worked so hard on that report..." Her voice faltered. "And that remark was cruel and mean, you have lots of pretty boys in your boardroom."

"Indeed I do, and I have personally selected each and every one of those pretty boys and girls for their intelligence, creativity, talent, and ambition." Merrick's dead eyes glared at his niece.

"You know which traits I don't cultivate on those around me, Mindy? Greed and stupidity. Don't ever pull that shit on me again."

"Yes, Uncle Merry," Mindy muttered, forcing herself to meet her Uncle's terrifying glare. She couldn't muster the courage. "I'm sorry, Uncle Merry."

"Loyalty is key," he grunted in disappointment, birthed from his anger.

"Loyalty is key," she replied.

Merrick didn't hear her, he was listening to the girl's voice; the one from the docks:

"It's not worth it."

"Laquisha, your bi-curious sorority mentor back at Howard," he asked in a conciliatory tone. "Does she still work at one of them alphabet agencies? What is it, NSA, CIA, DHS, WTF, or XYZ?"

"No, she went private, more money to be made; why?" Mindy glanced over her shoulder to see the elevator door open and Munir Al-Amin come out in a rush, huffing.

"Have dinner with her sooner rather than later, I need a cell phone hacked." Merrick smiled.

"You're recruiting outside talent?" Mindy asked him. "We have like a whole department for that stuff back at The Mill!"

"I don't want the help involved, this is a private dance," Merrick replied. "Black hats only."

"Yes sir." She grabbed Trent's (Terence's?) laptop and report from the desk.

"No, leave those." Merrick interrupted her. "Leave us,"

Mindy nodded both at her Uncle and at Munir Al-Amin who burst into his office straightening his tie.

"Mr. Miller, I am so sorry for making you wait, I don't know what happened with my scheduling."

"Life has its mysteries..." Merrick frowned at his niece who grimaced, beating a retreat.

"Don't worry about it, Munir; it gave me time to admire your splendid office decoration." He stretched his smile, shaking the young CEO's hand. "Now, what do I keep telling you? Call me Merry, for cryin' out loud!"

"I'm sorry," Munir grinned. "I just have trouble seeing you as a merry person."

"Oh, but I am." Merrick smiled back at him. "I may look like an evil motherfucker on the outside, but on the inside, I am as giddy as a kindergärtner."

They sat laughing and Merrick opened Trevon's (Tristan's?) report, glancing at the cost figures with a smirk.

ONE TO MIDNIGHT

His eyes were what did the trick.

He had such clear green eyes that Kimberly felt herself drowning on his Tinder picture.

Her girlfriends, even Merrick liked to poke fun at her fetish for emerald eyes and it was true, Kimberly was obsessed with them.

His powerful chin gave him the rough, chiseled face of a prehistoric god of the Siberian taiga. She glanced at his profile:

'Sergey, 27

I'm a Jazz musician playing the clarinet

Over at Simonette's Rhythm House

my mellow notes will make you wet

show me what's under your blouse'

Kimberly exploded into laughter, what a naughty man, and an artist too?

She swiped right without hesitation. Her heart almost burst out of her chest, they were a match.

Texting started that same afternoon; she had finally found a kindred spirit.

Sergey Odutov, born in Saint Petersburg, moved to the US with his parents following the Glasnost.

Kimberly was walking on cloud nine now, picturing the honeyed notes of his thick Russian accent traveling through her delighted ears. The mere thought made her wet.

Saint Petersburg...

She looked at her Winter Palace painting running the full length of their bedroom wall and remembered once telling Merrick that as a child, she had always secretly dreamt of one day living at the Hermitage Museum.

Merrick had kissed her on the forehead, whispering softly:

"One day, baby. One day..."

Darryl Harper was Sergey's idol and that is when Kimberly knew destiny was calling.

She had lost her virginity to the soft, melodic sounds of Spindleshanks, still her favorite track in Harper's The Edenfred Files album and her go-to tune whenever she needed to get her creative motor running.

She was floored to discover he also had the exact same movie tastes as her (The Chungking Express), same favorite food (Indonesian samosas), favorite era (Cromwell), and favorite Queen (Catherine the Great).

It was a match made in Heaven.

Kimberly was drenched when Merrick finally arrived and she pounced at her husband before he had even put his suitcase down.

Her greedy mouth feasted on his lips, his tongue, his neck, his torso, all the way down to his awakening sex, filling it with potency and intent.

Her mind filled with images of Sergey's mighty manhood as she licked her husband's mast, from the underside of his tip to his balls, then back up again, over and over.

Her hands joined in on the endeavor, feverishly stroking his boastful pole while her voracious tongue circled the rim of his penis crown, licking it in preparation.

Kimberly swallowed him with ravenous avarice, bobbing her head in and out like a rabid woodpecker. Within minutes, Merrick felt the waves of a climax approaching and struggled to push away his greedy wife.

"Kim, w... wait," he pleaded to no avail.

She clung to his butt cheeks and wolfed on his erection until Merrick's orgasm erupted in her throat while her blazing eyes prowled his.

Merrick's bulbous glans was still dripping ropes of gelatinous white ooze when Kimberly withdrew her mouth. Grabbing his hand, she lead him to their spacious bedroom where Kimberly forced the appalled husband's head down toward her nether regions.

Merrick acquiesced, releasing a frenzied volley of tongue lashings to her clitoral hood and its swollen tenant underneath. Kimberly screamed as her husband licked her into a fiery orgasm.

"Oh! Ooh! S-Serg.... Merrick! Ooh, Merrick! Yes! Oh, God, yess!" Kimberly heaved under his masterful oral assault, squirming in delight.

She was still grinning long after the ripples of pleasure had subsided from her numb limbs.

Sleep engulfed her and dreams of manly green eyed hunter-gatherers prowling snowy landscapes filled her mind.

She passed out and Merrick covered her body with the bedspread.

He sat on the bed, staring at his beautiful wife.

Dark thoughts coursed through his mind as he dissected his love for the treacherous snake. Close to midnight, he finally got up and headed for one of the spare bedrooms.

He had allowed himself to love and be loved, to be vulnerable and weak.

He would never make that mistake again.

As sleep finally engulfed him, Merrick whispered:

"Akrasia."

Sunrise kissed her flushed cheeks, greeting Kimberly with the promise of an exciting new day.

Merrick had evaporated back to work and Kimberly quickly found herself accosted by the scent of lavender and the intrusive clockwork routine of their Guatemalan maid Graciela:

"Lo siento, amor, pero tengo que hacer la cama."

Kimberly washed and did her face before foraging for coffee.

She slipped into the safety of her art studio and the soothing aroma of her acrylic paints, but she found herself staring at the canvas sitting on a tripod for hours.

The cover for Johnny Lund's next children's book would have to wait, focusing was next to impossible. Her mind kept fleeing back to the stunning jade eyes of Sergey Odutov.

Kimberly laughed, finally gaining the courage to admit she had been ensnared by the gorgeous jazz musician.

Her heart sunk when she noticed she had a text message from Merrick but not from Sergey.

>>emergency meeting with Zhou Trans-pacific in HK, won't be home tonight. Xoxo.

'Damn you, Merrick, if work is so important, you should have married it instead,' she moaned to herself.

Kimberly loved her husband to death, that much she knew.

He could be cold and distant at times, but she treasured Merrick's commanding presence, his goal-oriented approach to life, and his ability to focus on excruciating minutiae that so often escaped her artistic mind. Merrick was caring and reliable, like a trusted umbrella; she always knew where to find him.

His remarkable memory for minute details had swept her off her feet at the beginning of their relationship.

His astonishing capacity to remember what Kimberly did and didn't like.

The sting of guilt hit her, upon realizing that some of the things that she had found so fascinating about Sergey were same the ones her husband had introduced her to. Kimberly's shared fascination with Sergey for Venetian Carnival masks stemmed from their Honeymoon at the City of Canals' Hotel Moresco.

Their common love for canoeing was birthed from Kimberly's summer stays at the sprawling Miller ranch.

Even their mutual weakness for carnelian jewelry originated in her spelunking adventures with Merrick in the Mexican Crystal Cave.

Merrick had a dark streak born out of a family tragedy that at times both unsettled and excited her. It had added a new layer to their relationship and made sex so much more exhilarating.

But now, as routine had settled in, she had found her heart filled with new fears and cravings. She needed someone other than her husband to validate her as a woman, before pregnancy and motherhood ruined her youth and hourglass physique forever.

She texted Sergey:

>> Morning, my emerald-eyed sunshine. I've missed you.

>> Which part of me did you miss?

>> Wouldn't you wanna know...

A picture of an intermittent line drawn across his washboard abs graced Kimberly's phone screen.

>> North or south of the border?

That was the starting signal for the sexting that followed, a streaming wall of salacious text permeated by pictures of his massive nine inch cock (twice as thick as Merrick's), met in kind by her own photos of the best 34DD breasts XXI Century mammoplasty can buy.

Kimberly masturbated throughout the afternoon, drinking from his lurid words. Her clit was begging for mercy when he finally sent her the message she was longing for:

>> Dinner at Arnaud's, I want to lick your vertical smile into a grin

Kimberly screamed for joy, jumping off her studio chair to dive head first into her walk-in closet. Her dresses awaited her; there were choices to be made.

She had so many choices.

MIDNIGHT AT ARNAUD'S

Benny picked her up at 8pm, gawking at her generous shapes swaying underneath her tight red dress. There was not a sign of underwear in sight.

"Evening, Mrs. M." The chauffeur smiled, opening the limo door for her. "Girls' night out?"

"A girl needs her neon bath, Benny," she grinned, sprawling on the Corinthian leather seats.

Her phone chirped with a message from her friend Cynthia:

>> Girl's night at the Swingin' Sappho!

>> Can't. Dinner with a special someone.

>> You naughty girl, share!

Kimberly sent her the picture of Sergey's nine inch titan. Cynthia's arousal dripped from her next text message:

>> Bitch, I hate you. I'm on speed dial, call me if you need help taming that beast.

>> It's a deal.

The Bentley purred its way to her illicit encounter.

There was a long line of couples hoping for a table at Arnaud's.

"Oh, Mrs. Hart, you look positively ravishing," a distinguished man whispered into the ear of a fortysomething in a tacky backless dress, circling her waist as he kissed her lips.

"Why, thank you, Mr. Graham," the cougar wrapped her arms around his neck while her mouth swallowed his.

"Excuse me," Kimberly shoved the couple out of her way as she approached the Maitre d'. The woman threw daggers at her:

"Why, I never!..."

"Good evening, Anton." Kimberly smiled.

"Ah, good evening, Mrs. Miller, it's always such a pleasure to see you." He checked his book, then snapped his fingers with poise; "Bernardo! Please show Mrs. Miller to table five."

"Thank you, Anton," Kimberly turned to smirk at the cougar who was positively fuming.

"This way please, senhora."

Kimberly's heart skipped a beat; Sergey looked even taller than she had pictured him.

The Slavic beau dropped the menu he was studying and stood up as she approached, smiling.

"We meet at last, Mrs. Miller."

"Do you expect me to swoon, Mr. Odutov?"

"No, Mrs. Miller. I expect you to kiss me."

Kimberly giggled, giving her green eyed Adonis a chaste peck on the cheek. Proprieties had to be maintained in public venues.

She sat already moist, feeling the heat between her legs.

"Will your husband be joining us tonight, Mrs. Miller?"

"God, I sure hope not, Mr. Odutov, considering the things I intend to do to that divine body of yours."

Sergey was fascinating, she could listen to him describing the beauties of the Mediterranean for hours.

"You sure know the Balkans, uh?"

"I've spent some time there, it's where I learned to drive a van. I was seven."

Kimberly laughed, excited.

Sliding her foot off her stylish Louboutin shoe, she glided it up toward Sergey's crotch, massaging his swelling cock.

"Hmm, I can't wait to meet this fellow in person."

"Why wait?" Sergey winked.

"Why, indeed," Kimberly bit her lower lip.

Getting up, she walked toward the bathrooms, looking seductively at Sergey over her shoulder.

The handsome man followed her moments later. Grabbing her hand, Sergey kissed her before dragging the horny wife to the men's bathroom and into the nearest toilet cubicle.

"Ooh, Mrs. Miller, I've waited so long for this."

"Show me!"

Sergey bent Kimberly over the toilet and rammed her from behind, pounding her with gusto while the young wife screamed in agonizing pleasure.

"Yes! Oh, my God, yes! Sergey! Give it to me!"

Their excitement was such that the mating lasted less than three minutes, with Sergey erupting deep inside Kimberly.

His fingers on her clit finished her off two minutes later.

"Oh, my gorgeous Sergey! Ooh!"

They spent more time cleaning up the massive flow of cum pouring out of the young wife's pussy than actually fucking.

The couple returned to their table a few minutes later, with a wide grin illuminating Kimberly's face.

"So," she tilted her head seductively. "Disappointed?"

"It depends," he smiled, grabbing a pen from his breast pocket to write on a napkin. "Do you like anagrams?"

Kimberly looked at him puzzled.

"Anagrams?"

Sergey flipped the napkin to show her what he had written.

'SerGey Odutov

yOu Got Served'

Kimberly's smile cracked and her face turned white.

The dashing young man got up and tapped his index finger on his menu resting on the table, before sliding it to reveal an envelope underneath.

She watched him leave, then reached for the envelope with trembling fingers.

The signed divorce form inside was attached to a copy of her prenup.

"No," Kimberly screamed, startling everyone inside the restaurant. "No. No. Noo!"

Merrick's dead eyes had witnessed the spectacle.

Standing behind a decorative palm tree near the bathrooms, he whispered to his niece.

"Begging for spare change at soup kitchens before Christmas and prostituting on the streets for meth by this time next year."

"Done, Uncle Merry," Mindy replied, giving him a pitiful attempt at a military salute.

"Loyalty is key."

"Loyalty is key," Mindy repeated.

As Merrick exited Arnaud's closely followed by his niece, navigating through the line of couples waiting, the cougar in the tacky backless dress looked at Kimberly bent on her seat, crying and whispered to her date:

"Do you think we can have her table?"

CLOCK RESET

There were dozens of Krav Maga gyms in New York. Merrick's white hats eventually tracked his teenage Samoan friend to an old decaying building next to an abandoned Laundromat.

"We're closed, private property. What do you want?" a woman in black stopped him, raising her hand.

The jade bracelet on her wrist matched her clear green Slavic eyes. Merrick's mind flashed with an image of "Sergey".

"I think I have a friend who spars here. Vailea something, Samoan girl?"

The woman squinted her eyes. There are rally cries, screams, and grunts coming from inside.

"Don't you have friends your own age?"

"I ate them all," Merrick grunted, pushing past her.

The two old fishermen from the docks sat on a corner table, playing checkers. Occasionally, they would turn to the eight-strong group of young practitioners, screaming:

"Kick her ass, Hyeon!"

"Cave her head in, Vailea!"

Both grey haired men would return to their game laughing, to the dismay of present parents and relatives who displayed far more vested interest in the proceedings.

Vailea was up, sparring with an Asian girl about her age with a horrible scar on her throat.

'That evil Korean girl,' Merrick thought to himself.

"I'm gowing to eat your soul!" Vailea's nemesis grunted and the businessman noticed her speech impediment.

A freckle-faced bronze haired girl with sad eyes circled the mat, screaming over and over:

"You can do it, Vailea! You can do it, c'mon!"

Vailea grabbed her opponent's arm, aiming for an arm lock, but the Korean girl was vicious; jumping up, she kneed Vailea in the groin before elbowing her jaw. A sweep to her support leg threw Vailea to the ground, but she recovered with a side breakfall.

The Korean she-devil was kicking Vailea's ass despite her slightly smaller size.

"Are we hungry yet?" Merrick yelled and Vailea turned her head, recognizing his voice. "I said, are we hungry yet?"

Vailea's sneaky adversary seized the distraction to attack, but the sad-eyed girl screamed, allowing her to sense, block and dodge the rapid fire punch-punch-kick-punch sequence.

There was a glimpse of mischief in the Samoan girl's eyes now.

The woman in the jade bracelet moved in closer, like a predator circling her prey. Merrick ignored her, his focus was on his teenage friend.

"Straight through the mat?" the girl asked Merrick as her contender tried to angle her.

"All the way down to the boiler room," he replied with a smile.

Vailea stuck her tongue out in a terrifying haka scowl that made her sworn enemy hesitate.

Merrick's valiant friend lunged at her nemesis with a left-right punch combo.

Her opponent's forearms blocked both, but not the knee that trailed them immediately behind, striking her right at the mouth of her stomach.