Tessa Dare Quotes

#1. Your breasts are alabaster orbs.' "What?" Rufus objected. "That's stupid. I'm not saying that."
"Do you have some better suggestion?"
"Why can't you just say she's got a fair set of titties?

Tessa Dare

#2. Ransom?" She struggled to sit up. "What are you do - ?"
He laid his tongue to her core.
"Oh." She flopped back against the bed. "Oh."
God, she was sweet. Sweet and pink and musky and Izzy.

Tessa Dare

#3. It's so curious, isn't it? How if you're denied something again and again, eventually you start telling yourself you didn't want it in the first place.

Tessa Dare

#4. Devilish men should not be allowed to hold kittens, babies, or bouquets of wildflowers. There ought to be an Act of Parliament.

Tessa Dare

#5. He lay on the bed, freshly shaven and washed, legs crossed at the ankles and arms propped behind his head. His posture said, Yes, ladies. I truly am this handsome. And I don't even have to try.

Tessa Dare

#6. What have I done? Most lasses like it when a man kills the bugs. Along with reaching high places and giving sexual pleasure, it's one of the few universally popular qualities we have on offer."

-Logan

Tessa Dare

#7. It started to rain. Fat, heavy drops of summer rain - the kind that always struck her as vaguely lewd and debauched. Little potbellied drunkards, those summer raindrops, chortling on their way to earth and crashing open with glee.

Tessa Dare

#8. Look at him. The man's not delusional. He's in love.

Tessa Dare

#9. I'd have to be dead in my grave before I stopped fighting for you, Madeline. Even then, I'd move six feet of earth to find a way.
-Logan

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#10. And she was well-enough acquainted with loneliness to understand that the worst part wasn't having nobody caring for you - it was having nobody to care for.

Tessa Dare

#11. Just because they're family doesn't mean they won't hurt you. It means they know how to cut deep.

Tessa Dare

#12. Drat. I'm not sure anyone even noticed the kiss."
"I noticed it." He rubbed his mouth with the side of his hand. The taste of ripe plums still lingered on his lips. He found himself unaccountably thirsty.

Tessa Dare

#13. He wanted to possess her mouth, her body, her mind and heart. To touch every deep, soft and secret part of her: the tender arch of her palate, the vulnerable curve beneath each breast, the snug corner of her heart where his memory lived.

-Luke's thoughts

Tessa Dare

#14. My God, what's happened?" He crossed to her at once and knelt at her side. "What is it? Tell me."
"It's ruined," she cried.
"What's ruined?"
"Everything. Your meal. My life. Our chances." She hiccupped. "The eel.

Tessa Dare

#15. Sometimes the devil you knew was easier to face than the devil who'd pressed you to a bedpost and rolled your nipple under his thumb.

Tessa Dare

#16. He took that mental image and filed it away under Pleasant-Sounding Impossibilities. Right between "flying carriage" and "beer fountain.

Tessa Dare

#17. Oh no. Oh God. I couldn't possibly be so stupid."
"Don't limit yourself. You can be anything you wish.

Tessa Dare

#18. My dear imaginary Captain MacKenzie, you are not real and never will be. I, however, am a true and eternal fool.
Here, have a drawing of a snail.

Tessa Dare

#19. How precisely, had a arrived at this? He was taking orders from a spinster, willingly submitting himself to her medieval torture devices. And she wasn't even naked.
-Bram's thoughts

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#20. I don't care who he is. He needs to disappear." Ransom turned and called out the window. "For the love of G-d man. I have England's sweetheart bent over the desk and panting for me. Go away and come back tomorrow.

Tessa Dare

#21. Well," he breathed against her ear, "I happen to have a few depraved fantasies of my own."
The words hummed in her ear, sending electric jolts of arousal straight to her core. She whispered, "Tell me.

Tessa Dare

#22. What I'm saying isna romantic. It's raw, primal, and entirely crude." He lowered his voice to a growl. "You, Madeline Elise Gracechurch have been driving me slowly mad with lust. For years.

Tessa Dare

#23. Men never hesitated to declare their presence. They were permitted to live aloud, in reverberating thuds and clunks, while ladies were always schooled to abide in hushed whispers.

Tessa Dare

#24. He caught her pearl with his fingertips and worked her in tight, feverish circles until she shuddered and cried out with the exquisite pleasure. As her climax receded, he withdrew, finishing with a few hard, desperate thrusts between her thighs. As he came, she savored his low growl.

Tessa Dare

#25. Katie." He groaned. "I burn for you."

Just a few husky words, but coming from a man so taciturn, she thought they must equal reams of poetry.

Tessa Dare

#26. Look at me. Now look at yourselves. Now look back at me. I am the man you want to be like.

Tessa Dare

#27. Sweetness. That was the first surprise. He'd heard so many tart words from these lips . . . but her kiss was sweet. Cool and sweet, with a hint of true decadence beneath. Like a sun-ripened plum at the height of summer. Ready to fall into his hand at the slightest inducement.

Tessa Dare

#28. She would allow him to comfort her. And perhaps, someday, she would listen patiently if a dark, dreary night found him well in his cups and he drunkenly confessed to still feeling scores of wounds that weren't his own, but those of men under his command.

Tessa Dare

#29. I'm not a child," Eliza argued with the closed double doors. "I'm a grown woman. With accomplishments and bosoms and everything.

Tessa Dare

#30. Any self-respecting rake had two kinds of women in his life: those he took to bed at night and those who made him a pancake in the morning. If he suddenly wanted both from the same woman, it was a warning flag. One big and red enough for even a blind man to see.

Tessa Dare

#31. What? You mean to travel almost five hundred miles alone? No. I can't let you do that. I ... I forbid you. It was Colin's first attempt at forbidding anyone to do anything, and it worked about as well as he'd expected it to. Which was to say, not at all.

Tessa Dare

#32. Why didn't God apportion fine looks in equal accordance with deserving personalities? A horrid man ought to be horrid looking.

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#33. He rubbed his hands up and down, warming her. Then that's all you need to know. I have you. If there are beasties in the dark, they have to get through me

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#34. I'm so sorry to disappoint you," she said, breathing hard. "But it would take far more than that to scare me."
A quick flex of his arms, and their bodies collided. And he whispered, just as his mouth fell on hers, "God, I was hoping you'd say that.

Tessa Dare

#35. You're hurt."
"No. No, I'm fine. It's not blood. The militiamen were adjusting Sir Lewis's trebuchet, and there was a mishap. You took a melon for me." She smiled, even though her lips trembled.

Tessa Dare

#36. At times like these, patience came at a premium.

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#37. Prithee," He protested, "if thou wouldst waiteth a goddamned second-

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#38. You have splinters in your back."
"Do I? Well, you have a small fortune between your breasts.

Tessa Dare

#39. There was a moment of tenderness between them, and for a moment he experienced the most rare, ridiculous emotion- hope.

Tessa Dare

#40. Perhaps he would have no title or fortune to offer her, but he was determined to see her safe.
Everything he did, from this point forward ...
It was all for her.

Tessa Dare

#41. When a girl trudged through the rain at midnight to knock at the Devil's door, the Devil should at least have the depravity - if not the decency - to answer.

Tessa Dare

#42. Everything's more amusing when read in voices.

Tessa Dare

#43. Most lasses like it when a man kills the bugs. Along with reaching high places and giving sexual pleasure, it's one of the few universally popular qualities we have on offer.

Tessa Dare

#44. Cleverness is like rouge - liberal application makes a woman look common and desperate. Wit is knowing how to apply it.

Tessa Dare

#45. What is the world coming to, with these modern women? A man can't tell them what to do.

Tessa Dare

#46. So odd. Most women of his acquaintance relied on physical beauty and charm to mask their less-pleasant traits. This girl did the opposite, hiding everything interesting about herself behind a prim, plain facade.
What other surprises was she concealing?

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#47. Her softest, most secret parts quivered. She

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#48. Sometimes he wondered if women were all lawyers, with an extensive code of Romantic Law that they kept stubbornly hidden from men.

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#49. You can't just take her," Jeremy said, his voice growing rough with anger. "She belongs here. She's my wife."
Henry's eyes narrowed. "Not if I kill you, she isn't. Then she's your widow.

Tessa Dare

#50. Perhaps... Perhaps he could make her happy. Not with the Granville money or his social cachet, but just by being the man he was, at his core. Sometimes, when he looked deep into those blue eyes, it felt like anything was possible.

Tessa Dare

#51. Don't think you'll shame me with your prim silence. I'm not ashamed in the least. Just because you make friends by acting as though you were found under a turnip leaf and raised by gnomes, it doesn't mean everyone takes pleasure in being prudish.

Tessa Dare

#52. Izzy felt as though she'd wandered into the third act of a play. She had no idea what was going on, but it was unbearably dramatic.

Tessa Dare

#53. He couldn't compare a woman to a torrentially beautiful monsoon, and then look surprised that he'd gotten wet.

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#54. I think you underestimate my capacity for taking normal human interaction and making it awkward.

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#55. There are all kinds of courage in the world, and most of it takes place far from battlefields.

Tessa Dare

#56. A home isn't only defined by what you need, Bram. It's also about the people who need you

Tessa Dare

#57. It's never been my desire to conquer you, Amelia. If you leave this room with me, it must be at my side. As my wife, my lover, my partner ... " His thumb brushed her lip. "My dearest friend.

Tessa Dare

#58. Forget birds singing, bells ringing, brooks quaintly babbling over rocks. Choirs of angels could go hang. Her voice, even scratchy and weak, was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard.

Tessa Dare

#59. He had to feel those lips on him again. Had. To. This wasn't a mild expression of preference. This was an imperative. His body was insistent. To continue his
existence on this earth, he now needed the following: food, water, shelter, clothing, and Minerva Highwood's lips.

Tessa Dare

#60. Feel that?" he growled.
She nodded. Good Lord, how could she not?
"I've been hard for you for days, Minerva. Since before we even left Spindle Cove. If you believe nothing else, believe this." He rocked against her. "This doesn't lie.

Tessa Dare

#61. All eyes turned to Cecily. Denny laid a hand on her pale blue sleeve, and Luke felt a possessive fury surge through his veins. Let

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#62. The Blushing Pansy," his cousin read aloud, in a tone of abject horror. "Tea shop and confectionery."
Bram swore. This was going to be ugly.

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#63. As an experienced wallflower, Violet Winterbottom knew to stake her ground and guard it. She'd

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#64. Yes, Min. This is how it should be." Raw need edged his voice. "Never settle for less. Be fearless. Wild and loud and lovely. God, you're so lovely.

Tessa Dare

#65. More to the point, I am fifty-eight. I need grandchildren before my decline. It's not right for two generations of the family to be drooling at the same time.

Tessa Dare

#66. I'll be damned," he muttered."Most likely." She folded the blanket with efficient snaps. "And I may be joining you, after what we just did.

Tessa Dare

#67. Why did men have to ruin everything? The answer was simple, she supposed - because foolish women gave them the chance

Tessa Dare

#68. You're my home, Susanna. My home, my heart, my dearest love. Wherever you are, that's where I belong. Always. - Victor Bramwell, Earl of Rycliff

Tessa Dare

#69. Snails mate faster than Farnsworths."
Georgie gave her a chastening look. "Eliza."
"Well, it's true. I've watched."
"You've spied on Sir Roland?"
"No, I've spied on snails.

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#70. That's it," she said, balling her hands in fists. "I'm not letting you out of it this time. I insist that you take me to Scotland. I demand you ruin me. As a point of honor.

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#71. This isn't food." Bram picked up a lavender-iced cake between thumb and finger and stared at it. "This is ... edible ornamentation.

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#72. It was only a matter of time. She would love him before the week was out and it would be gloriously terrible, wonderfully hopeless.

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#73. There was good in him. Raw, molten goodness, bubbling deep in his core. But he didn't possess the charm or manners to control it. It just erupted periodically in volcano fashion, startling anyone who happened to be nearby.

Tessa Dare

#74. We have to get out of here, Bram. Before they take our bollocks and use them for pincushions.

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#75. You're undressing me," he said thickly.
"It can't be helped."
"Wasn't complaining.

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#76. Surely this marked a new level of achievement in his amatory career. Never before had he charmed the frock off a woman with talk of mathematics. Never before would he have thought to try.

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#77. What the hell are you going here?" He clutched the bedsheet, holding it level with his neck.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"I hope not."
"I'm here to see the lavender nightshirt.

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#78. No, no. Don't make that face. Every time I propose to you, you make that twisty, unhappy face. It wears on a man's confidence.

Tessa Dare

#79. At some point, while you were roaming the globe, making treaties and dividing the spoils of war, I quietly declared my own independence. I am the sovereign nation of Clio now. And there will be no terms of surrender.

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#80. He laughed. A strained, ha, ha, ha, I may die of this laugh.

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#81. Oh, Lord. Now he was not only an impoverished orphan, but an impoverished, unloved orphan with a passion for books. Her every feminine impulse jumped to attention.

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#82. I've spent years studying all sorts of creatures. Do you know what I've noticed? The ones that build themselves the toughest, strongest shells for protection...inside, they're nothing but squish.

Squish?

Goo. Jelly. Squish.

Tessa Dare

#83. Even so, Miss Whitmore . . . We should have a signal." "A signal?" "A word to shout if you're in distress. Like 'Tangiers,' or . . . or perhaps 'muscadine.' " Clio gave her an amused look. "Is something wrong with the word 'help'?" "I . . . well, I suppose not." "Very

Tessa Dare

#84. Confidence did more to enhance a woman's beauty than any kohl or rouge could manage.

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#85. And then he bent to kiss her there.
She flinched and bucked, bashing him in the head with her knee.
Ouch.
With a low moan of pain, Logan rolled to the side, clutching his head.

Tessa Dare

#86. I love you, too," she said.

He lifted his head, surprised. "Did I say it?"

She smiled. "Only several times."

"Oh. Then good." He kissed her again. "I felt it enough for a thousand.

Tessa Dare

#87. Don't. Don't play that game." His brow pressed to hers. "When I heard you cry out . . . it was like a saber to the gut. I wanted to die.

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#88. Then she sighed. Just the faintest, softest release of breath. The sound swept through his chest like a hurricane, with the force to topple trees.

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#89. Every time you wake up, you let fly the most marvelous string of curses. It's never the same twice, do you know that? It's so intriguing. You're like a rooster that crows blasphemy.

Tessa Dare

#90. In answer, he bent his head toward hers.
"Wait." She ducked away from the kiss.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing unless you want it.

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#91. I would rather die a spinster - poor, ruined, scorned, and alone - than suffer that heartbreak daily.

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#92. A kilt isna a skirt. 'Tis an entirely different thing.

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#93. The dark scares you because it seems boundless. But it isn't as vast as it seems. You can explore it, learn the shape of it, take its measure - just as you can see a room with your eyes. You have your hands, nose, ears

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#94. Truly? That whole determined, dangerous saunter across the room was for me? In that case, would you mind going back and doing it all over again? Slowly this time, and with feeling.

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#95. When he wasn't cutting the pitiful figure of a mourning widower, he was being a downright prick.

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#96. Certainty becomes you.

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#97. He was right. They could have a whole conversation without exchanging a word. And the conversation they had right now went like this: Colin, shut it. I don't think I will, M. Then I'll make you. Really? How?I'm not certain, but it will be slow and painful. And I won't leave any evidence.

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#98. He laced his hands behind his neck and propped his boots on the opposite arm of the sofa. If an artist were to capture this image, it would have been labeled,Smugness: A Portrait. She wanted to shake him.

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#99. Oh no. Don't smile. You'll kill me. I stop breathing when you smile.

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#100. She'd always envied beautiful women. Not solely for the beauty itself but because when attributes were parceled out by whatever deity assigned them, beauty seemed to come tethered to confidence. She craved that more than anything.

Tessa Dare