The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky (Montague Siblings, #1.5)

by Mackenzi Lee

“But I am desperate. And you are the only one available.” She snorts. “Bet you say that to all the girls.”

It had felt like the first deep breath I’d ever taken, to tell him everything, to hear his half of it all, then hold them up together to find they fit like two pieces of cracked pottery.

“Yes, well, I’ve been rather occupied for most of my life with wanting only you.”

perhaps it’s because in the shadowy corners of my heart, I know I’m the sort of person you romp with for one wild night and then you climb out the window before I wake. The sort of person no one wants to be around unless there’s some kind of reward involved, preferably of a sexual nature. Not the sort you bet all your chips on a life with.

why does someone as gentle and sweet as Percy Newton want to be with someone as raw and rough as me?

How had loving him this much made me selfish and drunk and awful, while he had grown even kinder and softer in its harsh light?

Men my size were not meant to be firing rifles. I’m far too small and delicate.” “Yes, those are most certainly two words I would use to describe you.”

“You deserve a reward for all I put you through.” “You’re my reward.” “What a rotten reward I am.” “Not to me. Why do you think everyone needs some sort of recompense for being around you?” he says, his voice so gentle I almost start to cry.

And it’s going to be a disaster. But that’s all right, because we’ll have each other, and there’s no one on this goddamn planet I’d rather be a disaster with than you.”

I’m not sure how to believe any of that. How to break from the grooves I’ve worn down inside myself from years of thinking I’d never be anything more than a last resort.

I want to be the only thing touching him. I want to be the only thing that ever touches him again.

I want to breathe him, let him fill up my chest until my ribs strain and I break open like ripe fruit beneath a paring knife.

I would teach my body to regrow my heart each time I gave it to him, over and over and over again. Heart after heart after heart—every one of them his.

we are tough and stupid together and we are going to be tough and stupid together for the rest of our lives.

Percy starts to laugh again, loud and heady. I could drink that sound forever and never again touch a bottle of spirits.

Someday, you little twat, I’d tell him, it’s going to be more. It’s going to be better, and so will you. Where we start doesn’t have to be where we end up.

“I love you,” I say quietly. “You know that?” “And I you, my darling boy.” He nestles his head against mine and takes a deep breath.