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

by Mackenzi Lee

“And maybe we can’t make it work. But maybe that doesn’t matter because we’re tough and we’re stupid and we’re going to try anyway.”

“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 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.

I let out a shriek of surprise, which shatters into a laugh, and I have just jumped off a goddamn cliff into the goddamn ocean, and 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.

“If you thought I was ignorant as to the nature of your relationship with Mr. Newton, you may need to reexamine your concept of appropriate physical fondness between friends.”