If You Could Only Dream

by M. E. Clayton

  And, yes, this was a goddamn race. If Mason and Shane had the first baby girl in the family, Denise had better run.

  Or waddle, as would be the case here.

  I knew most guys wanted boys to carry on their last name and legacy, but I wanted a little girl so damn badly. I wanted 17 trillion little girls with dark brown ringlets, light caramel complexions and smiles that lit up my entire world.

  It really wasn’t too much to ask.

  I mean, really.

  Denise finished chewing and swallowed a bit of her food before adding, “Besides, I’d think you’d be happy with that godawful orange nursery you decorated,” she grimaced.

  I don’t know what my family had against the color orange.

  My lunch completely forgotten, I kept eyeing my wife until there was only one thing she could do to make this right. “How are you feeling today?”

  She paused, her sandwich stopped midway towards her mouth, and looked over at me. “I’m fine,” she replied warily.

  “Good,” I smirked. “How about we put lunch on hold for a while and you let me have my way with your delectable body?”

  I saw how she tried to hide her smile, but even if her face hadn’t betrayed her, her eyes always did. Denise fought me a lot when I first went after her, but once she gave in, it didn’t take much to get her naked beneath me. “I don’t know,” she hedged, pretending to be thinking it over. “This is a damn good sandwich, Aiden. You really should try it.”

  I was off my barstool and her ass was perched on the kitchen island before she even knew what hit her. “I know exactly what I want to try, baby.”

  Chapter 4

  Denise Buchanan~

  I was such a sucker for this man.

  It didn’t help any that he was hot as sin and could create miracles with that penis of his, either.

  Aiden stepped in between my legs and I shamelessly opened my legs farther apart, not hesitating at all. Lately, I’ve been wearing light dresses and skirts because my baby bump was more prominent and the dresses and skirts felt more comfortable, and, thank God, I opted for that fashion choice today.

  I ran my hands up his arms until I anchored them around his neck. “What did you have in mind?”

  His hands slid up my thighs until they rested on my hips. “I was thinking I could spread you wide and eat you for lunch.”

  It sounded like a damn good idea to me. “Hmm…that’s got me kind of rethinking my earlier assertion of labeling you nuts.”

  Aiden smiled, and it was so full of love and adoration, it reminded me never to take him for granted. “Oh, but I am,” he teased. “I’m nuts about you.”

  And I knew it to be the truth.

  Aiden revered the female species, so I knew he appreciated me from just that alone, but the way the man loved me was beyond your usual girl meets boy scenario. Aiden’s appreciation for women made him a wonderful husband and an impeccable lover.

  I can remember every reason why I thought dating Aiden had been a bad idea, but I thank God every day, that he had ignored my protests and chose to love me, anyway. Granted, at the time, I hadn’t been convinced pursuing our relationship had been worth it, but Aiden proved me wrong.

  “I’m kind of nuts about you, too, you know,” I teased back.

  He wiggled his brows. “Enough to lay back and let me taste you?”

  “Oh, I’m definitely nuts about you enough to let you do that,” I said, wiggling my brows back at him.

  Aiden leaned and planted a soft kiss against my lips. “Then lay back, baby.”

  I did as he asked, and my entire body broke out in chills in anticipation of what I knew he was capable of. “Like this?”

  “No,” he answered, right before he flipped my skirt up over my little hill. “Like this, baby.”

  I was about to lift my ass so Aiden could pull down my panties when his phone rang. I let out a muffled laugh. “Of course…”

  “It’s Mason,” he murmured, as he began placing kisses along the inside of my right thigh, completely ignoring his ringing phone. And he was right. I recognized the ringtone. Since there was eight of us in our little self-made family, we all had individual identifying ringtones, so we’d know who was calling and whatnot.

  “Are you sure you don’t want-”

  “Fuck no, I don’t want to answer,” he groaned, interrupting me. “My brother can wait.”

  I closed my eyes and relaxed against the countertop, ready to let Aiden continue, when a second ringtone sounded, and I knew it was over.

  Aiden had no qualms about ignoring his brothers, but he never ignored his sisters; specifically, Shane.

  The Buchanan men absolutely adored Shane.

  “Shit,” he grunted, but went for his phone, anyway. Now, most women might be upset that their husband would stop in the middle of making love to answer another woman’s call, but not me. I had no insecurities when it came to Aiden. None, at all.

  Plus, even if Shane wasn’t my sister-in-law, she was a special type of person and I loved her dearly.

  I sat up as I watched Aiden answer his phone. “What’s up, Sis?” I watched his face morph into confusion. “Mason?” And then I watched Aiden’s eyes widened and his face pale. “Yeah, sure…No. Yeah, we’re on our way.”

  I waited until Aiden hung up. “What’s going on?”

  Aiden looked at me with wonder and excitement. “Shane’s water just broke.”

  I clasped my hands over my mouth. Oh, my God! We’re going to have a baby! “Help me down!” Aiden grabbed me by my hips and set my feet on the floor. “Oh, Aiden!”

  “I hope my phone is charged so I can record all of this,” he said, his voice laced with laughter and excitement, “because, if that phone call is any indication, Mason’s a goddamn mess!”

  Chapter 5

  Gabriel Buchanan~

  “Oh, God,” my wife moaned. “That feels so good, Gabriel. So, goddamn, good.”

  I smirked, then lifted Justice’s left foot and placed a kiss on the arch, right before I went back to massaging it. “You do realize all your moaning is making my dick hard, right?”

  She let out a sweet laugh. “Your hard dick is the reason you have to massage my feet now, Gabriel,” she quipped.

  She wasn’t wrong.

  Justice was six months pregnant-much to Aiden’s dismay-and I tried to pamper her as often as I could, especially since she was still working. “I still don’t understand why you girls just don’t all go out on maternity leave already,” I grumbled.

  She was lying flat across the couch with her feet in my lap, and she did a half-ass sit up to stink-eye me. “We’ve been over this already, Gabriel,” she said, before relaxing her body to fall back down.

  Justice and my sisters-in-law, Denise and Sophia, all worked for Shane in her division of Buchanan Industries. A couple of years after Mason gave Shane The Morgan Corporation, Shane had recruited Denise as part of her team, and then shortly after that, Justice and Sophia.

  “I still don’t understand,” I complained again. “Once Shane has her baby, then you, and then Denise, who’s going to be left to run the division? Sophia’s expected to run it alone?”

  I could hear her snort. “She’s probably already pregnant as we speak with the way you ridiculous men have turned the miracle of birth into a Buchanan race to the finish.”

  Again, much to Aiden’s dismay, we got pregnant before he and Denise did, and he swore it was upsetting the natural balance of life, since he was the second oldest. “Truth be told, we should have gotten pregnant way before anyone else,” I pointed out. “We’ve been together the longest.”

  “Uh, not a fan of teenage pregnancies,” she retorted. “Besides, would you really have wanted to be a father while you were off at college?”

  I placed her foot in my lap and picked up her left foot to massage that one to give myself a few seconds. I knew she didn’t mean anything by it; Justice didn’t hold grudges. She dealt with her shit and then she moved on. But the unintentional
reminder that I left her to work out her life on her own, while I went off to college to get my degree, brought on that pang of regret I always felt whenever I thought about all those years I had taken her for granted.

  “You getting pregnant while we were in high school is probably the best thing that could have happened to me,” I snapped, not really intending to, but I still felt guilt over my treatment of her to this day. It doesn’t matter that I’ve worshipped the ground she walks on for the past few years.

  I’ll spend the rest of my life proving to her what she means to me.

  Justice pulled her feet off my lap and sat up to look at me. “Gabriel…”

  “Don’t Gabriel me,” I growled as I reached over to haul her into my lap. It wasn’t an easy feat trying to hold her straddled across my lap when her tummy put a foot of space between us, but I managed. I held her as close as I could and took in her beautiful face. “I don’t care what you say, or how much you claim to be over the fact that I was such a dick, I’ll never stop making it up to you.”

  She leaned in as far as she could and kissed the side of my face. “Gabriel, we’re past all that,” she said, all the love she has for me, clear in her voice. “Yeah, you were super stupid back then, but I want us to focus our energies on the now and what’s to come.”

  I didn’t deserve my wife. Sure, lots of men say that, but in my case it was true. I had taken Justice for granted way beyond what was normal, and I was lucky enough that she had given me a chance to make up for it.

  I decided to let my guilt go back to living in the back of my mind and give my wife what she wanted. “How about we focus our energies on you riding my cock?”

  Justice let out a sweet laugh. Once she settled down, she gifted me with one of her brilliant smiles. “Not so sure I can do that on this couch,” she teased. “Perhaps we should take this to the bedroom if it’s a ride you’re looking for.”

  I arched a brow. “So, is that a yes to refocusing our energies?” She tilted her head and her blonde locks fell in a curtain to the side. I reached up and entwined a few strands around my fingers. “Because I want to focus the hell out of my energies on you, Just.”

  She sighed and leaned in to kiss my lips. “Sounds like a great idea,” she agreed. “But are you sure you’re up to carrying me?”

  Chapter 6

  Justice Buchanan~

  Gabriel laughed at my question. “Baby, there will never come a day when I can’t carry your hot little body,” he countered, as he stood up, his hands and arms holding me firmly, proving his point.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on with my legs tangled around his waist. “You say that now, but in a couple of months I’m going to be as big as a house,” I reminded him.

  Gabriel walked us towards the bedroom without one labored breath. The man was fit and strong, with a six-pack that was so damn sexy, it was my screen saver on my phone. “If Mason can still carry Shane, then I’ll be able to carry you no matter how big that belly of yours gets,” he grumbled.

  Warmth flooded my soul at how sweet he was. “How do you know he can still carry her? Or that he even does?”

  We passed the threshold of the bedroom door. Gabriel waited to answer until I was lying across our bed with his body over mine. “Because there’s no way Mason will ever not carry Shane; literally or figuratively.”

  He wasn’t wrong on that account. Mason Buchanan was a borderline sociopath who scares the shit out of anyone who ever meets him. He was cold, calculating, and unfeeling. But that man loved his wife like something out of a goddamn fairytale. And all three brothers absolutely adored Shane Buchanan.

  And what’s not to adore?

  I loved all my sisters-in-law, but Shane was special. She was the type of person people wanted to be a part of. I knew Gabriel loved me beyond what I ever expected, but I also knew that if Shane ever needed anything, he’d be at her side in a heartbeat. Now, most women would think that put them in competition with the woman, but not me. Hell, if Shane ever needed anything, I’d be at her side in a heartbeat.

  The best way I could describe it was…Shane was the glue that kept us all together. Lots of families become distant once spouses and children come into the picture, what with being busy and all, but not the Buchanans. We were a tight-knit group and a lot of that was because Shane made sure we all got together often. It also helped that she hired all her sisters-in-law to work for her.

  “You don’t have to carry me, Gabriel,” I told him. “You just have to love me.”

  He snorted, and I laughed because I already knew whatever he was about to say was going to be utterly ridiculous. “Says you,” he quipped. “But Mason would kick my ass on a daily basis, if he ever heard I was failing you. So, yeah, no thank you to that.”

  I smiled into his beautiful green eyes. “Mason is too busy to kick your ass daily,” I reasoned.

  He snorted again. “That’s what he has Aiden and Michael for,” he countered. “They’d pick up his slack. Jesus,” he groaned, “especially Aiden.”

  I leaned up as best I could and started trailing kisses down the column of Gabriel’s neck. He moaned and my lips curved upwards. Gabriel was a sexy sonofabitch. “Well, how about you fuck me so hard, deep and uncontrollably, that I can’t help but praise to anyone who’ll listen, how well you take care of me?”

  His hips automatically pushed against my center. “God, I love when you talk dirty,” he whispered against the exposed skin of my shoulder, then, ever so randomly, said, “I miss your sno-cone hair.”

  I arched my neck so he could keep kissing my body. “I told you I wanted to look more professional.”

  “And I told you Shane doesn’t give a shit,” he growled.

  I was about to comment when Gabriel’s phone rang. “Shit,” he exhaled. “It’s Mason.”

  Gabriel was already lifting himself off my body. Now, normally, he wouldn’t stop what we were doing to answer his phone, but Shane was so close to going into labor, we all answered our phones if the ringtone identified either Mason or Shane. Well, we did. I wasn’t too sure about everyone else.

  I propped myself up onto my elbows as Gabriel held the phone to his ear. “What’s up?” I could see Gabriel’s body tense and butterflies fluttered around in my tummy.

  This was it.

  I just knew it.

  “We’ll be right there,” he said into the phone. “And, Mase…breathe, dude. Just breathe.”

  As soon as he hung up, I squealed, “Is Shane in labor?”

  He turned to look at me and his smile took up his entire face. “Shane is, indeed, in labor and Mason is flipping the fuck out.”

  Chapter 7

  Michael Buchanan~

  Sophia was probably going to divorce me.

  It was only a matter of time before she went to see a divorce lawyer.

  Or a Mafia hit man.

  “Jeeze Louise, Michael,” she uttered. “You’re driving me insane.”

  She was currently standing in front of the bathroom mirror trying to throw her hair up in a knot on top of her head, while I was on my knees in between her and the cabinets, with my arms wrapped around her waist and my head pressed up against her stomach. “Don’t care,” I replied…of course, not that she didn’t already know that.

  “You don’t care if I go insane?” she deadpanned. “How are you going to explain a crazy wife?”

  “The same way Aiden explains Dibtab and Gabriel explains Justice,” I deadpanned back. Shane wasn’t included because Shane was too special to be officially labeled as crazy.

  “Ooooohhhhh, I’m going to tell them you said that,” Sophia threatened.

  “And I’ll deny it,” I warned her.

  She let out a deep sigh. “Seriously, Michael,” she said, trying again to bring reason into our household. “I cannot go the next six months with you wrapped around my person.” I had just found out yesterday that Sophia was pregnant, and I haven’t left her side since. Well, I let the woman go pee without me, but that was
the extent of freedom I was allowing at this point.

  After the shock and excitement had worn off, we agreed that we would wait a few days to tell everyone. Not that we didn’t want to share our news, but Shane was so close to popping, we didn’t want to usurp her big moment with news about our pregnancy. I was certain she’d pop within a week, so the news could wait until then.

  “Pebble needs to know me and my voice just as much as it needs to know yours,” I retorted.

  “Pebble?” She asked.

  “Yeah, Pebble,” I confirmed. “You got a problem with that?”

  Sophia laughed. “No, Crazy Man,” she chuckled. “I have no problem with it, at all. However, you still can’t just be attached to my stomach, Michael.”

  “All the baby books I read claim otherwise,” I argued. The second Mason and Shane had shared the news of their pregnancy, I had ordered damn near every book on pregnancies and child rearing. I had intended to be a full hands-on uncle, and I wanted to make sure I returned their baby to them alive and well every time we babysat.

  Sophia finished tying her hair up in a bun, and placing her hands on her hips, she looked down at me. “I’m pretty sure there weren’t any chapters on latching onto the pregnant momma like a goddamn barnacle.”

  I looked up at my wife and hit her with the truth. “Yes, there was,” I informed her. “There were all kinds of chapters on how to cater to the mother and making sure she feels loved, comfortable, calm and relaxed.”

  Her eyes widened. “And you think wrapping your arms around my waist, plastering your ear to my stomach, while you talk gibberish to Pebble is the way to accomplish all that?”

  “Yep,” I replied, unreasonably.

  Sophia let out one of those sighs that let me know I was exhausting her. “And when everyone asks why you’re on your knees in front of me? We’re going to hardly be able to keep things hushed then.”

  I lifted her shirt and pulled down the waistband of her pajama pants, placing a kiss on her hipbone. It was well past noon, but we were being lazy today. “My brothers won’t ask why I’m on my knees in front of you,” I replied. “They’ll just assume I want to be close to your pussy.”