Top 250 Tessa Dare Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “She stared at him, horrified. And thrilled. And horrified at being thrilled.”

— Tessa Dare

102. “He shushed her. “Goodnight. We’re trapped together in a small, dark space. For the moment, we’re getting on as well as could possibly be expected. I don’t think this is the time to remind me of my many valid reasons to resent your presence and despise everything you stand for.”

— Tessa Dare

103. “He’d imprisoned himself in this castle to rot. He’d cut off all contact with the outside world. And just when he thought he’d burned all his bridges, this woman – this impossible, sweet, foolish woman – arrived, determined to swim the moat. Breach his defenses. Make a home. Stay.”

— Tessa Dare

104. “He felt a twinge of conscience. Most people would think he didn’t have a conscience, but he did. It surfaced about as often as the lost island of Atlantis, but he did possess one, down deep. And it was bellowing at him now.”

— Tessa Dare

105. “There were parts of her spun from floss and held together with hope – and those bits were fragile indeed.”

— Tessa Dare

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

— Tessa Dare

107. “There was rock-hard, there was hard-as-steel, and then there was the solidity of Rafe’s current erection – which so thoroughly surpassed all his previous experience, he suspected it might be of interest to science.”

— Tessa Dare

108. “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.”

— Tessa Dare

109. “He liked listening to her read. He liked it far too much. Listening to her voice was like floating along a river. Not a babbling stream, bouncing over rocks and such, but a river of wild honey with depth and a low, sweet melody. To keep afloat, he would have let her read just about anything.”

— Tessa Dare

110. “I don’t suppose there are eggs? If I do say it myself, I make a very good pancake.” Oh, no. This just grew worse and worse. I make a very good pancake.”

— Tessa Dare

111. “Instead of hugging the doll, Daisy attached herself to Chase’s leg, clinging to him with all four limbs. Alex rather wished she could do the same.”

— Tessa Dare

112. “Geologists might seem boring, but we’re really renegades.”

— Tessa Dare

113. “Emotions were so much easier to sort through one at a time, or so Louisa supposed. She wouldn’t know. Her life always delivered them in bundles, tied with impossibly knotted string.”

— Tessa Dare

114. “I don’t meet that qualification, either.” “I don’t care if you’re gently bred, roughly bred, or a loaf of brown bread with butter.”

— Tessa Dare

115. “Because I’m good at it,” he said, sounding agitated now. “I am bloody great at it. And I was never good at anything. Because it’s the one place where I know that my success is mine, and my failure, too. In the ring, I might be facing an Irish dock laborer or an English tanner or an American freedman. When the bell rings, none of it matters worth a damn. It’s only me. My strength, my heart, my wits, my fists. Nothing I was given, nothing I took. I fight because it tells me who I am.”

— Tessa Dare

116. “The love of books was an instant connection, and a true boon for a girl who tended toward shyness, because it was a source of endless conversation. A hundred questions sprang up in her mind, jostling with each other to reach the front of the queue. Did he prefer essays, dramas, novels, poems? How many books had he read, and in which languages? Which ones had he read again and again?”

— Tessa Dare

117. “I can’t agree to a convenient arrangement, my lord. Your devotion to duty may be admirable, but ‘lie back and think of England’ simply isn’t for me.” His voice became low and dark. “I cannot promise you everything you might wish, but I promise you this: When I take you to bed, you will not be thinking of England.” “Oh.”

— Tessa Dare

118. “A sham sandwich, indeed. One that sat on a tray of lies.”

— Tessa Dare

119. “Never mind the curtains, you milk-livered, flap-mouthed dotard.”

— Tessa Dare

120. “She passed through the door, walked down a dim corridor, and emerged into a soaring, empty space. What she found made her blood turn cold. Oh, muscadine.”

— Tessa Dare

121. “I loved you with imprudent, reckless abandon. I loved you with all the heart and soul I knew how to command.”

— Tessa Dare

122. “You’re here,”he repeated, taking her hand and drawing it against his chest, right above his pounding heartbeat. “In my heart. Somehow you crashed your way into it when I wasn’t looking. The same way you barged into my library, I suppose. But you’re here now, inside. Emma, you’re the very life of me.”

— Tessa Dare

123. “We should go after the girls.” “Yes, we should.” Neither of them moved. Alex bit her lip. “We’re going to kiss instead, aren’t we.” He caught her in his arms. “You’re goddamned right, we are.”

— Tessa Dare

124. “A kilt isna a skirt. ‘Tis an entirely different thing.”

— Tessa Dare

125. “Everything in his life backfired. First that rocket at Waterloo. Then his engagement. Now this whole blasted arrangement with Emma. Despite the supposedly impersonal nature of their marriage, she was slowly working her way under his skin, under his scars. If not deeper.”

— Tessa Dare

126. “He wanted to peel the garment from her, cast it aside, and offer himself instead. Chase wasn’t good for much, but he could stand between her body and the world.”

— Tessa Dare

127. “Kate realized she had a grave problem. She was infatuated. Or mildly insane. Possibly both.”

— Tessa Dare

128. “If I had your life story, it would be the first thing I mentioned to anyone. ‘Hullo, I’m Chase Reynaud. I learned to toddle aboard a merchant ship, and the Seven Seas rocked my cradle. And have I mentioned that no tropical sunset could compare with your beauty?’ The women would fall into bed with me.” “Don’t they fall into bed with you anyway?” “That’s true. But they might do so a half minute faster. Over months and years, those half minutes add up. So let’s hear the rest of the tale.”

— Tessa Dare

129. “Look at him. The man’s not delusional. He’s in love.”

— Tessa Dare

130. “He spoke the words that were most difficult of all. “Love me.”

— Tessa Dare

131. “Because I am not eulogizing another leprosy victim covered in sores that weep marmalade!”

— Tessa Dare

132. “Griff held out his empty hand. “Pauline, I’m here asking you – begging you, if it comes to that – to take my hand. Just take my hand, and promise before God you will never let it go. I will vow the same. Can we arrange for that to happen, someday soon? In a church?” After a moment, he added in a quiet voice, “Please?”

— Tessa Dare

Featured in: Romance Quotes

133. “You laid black powder charges. To move a flock of sheep.” Pulling her hand from his grip, she studied the craters in the road. “Sir, I remain unconvinced of your sanity. But there’s no question you are male.”

— Tessa Dare

134. “She smiled. “Do you know, I suspected you were a good man, deep down. Even if very, very, very deep down. In a fathomless cavern. Underneath a volcano.”

— Tessa Dare

135. “Susanna and Lord Rycliff had, in her observation, the ideal marriage. They understood one another, completely and implicitly. They disagreed and argued openly, demanded a great deal of each other and themselves, and they loved one another through it all. They were partners. Not just in love, but in life.”

— Tessa Dare

136. “Oh, Colin.” She dabbed a fingertip to his sticky abdomen, then rubbed her fingers together, as though testing the quality of his seed. “That was fascinating.”

— Tessa Dare

137. “Surely you know the feeling of infatuation. Everyone does. It’s not merely physical admiration. Your mind fixes on a person, and it’s as though you float through the days, singing a song that only has one word, thinking of nothing but the next time you’ll see them again.”

— Tessa Dare

138. “Clearly the sight of a well-muscled forearm incited a woman to utter depravity. How else to explain the invention of cuffs?”

— Tessa Dare

Featured in: Romance Quotes

139. “Most of the time, a girl needed to rescue herself.”

— Tessa Dare

140. “And he didn’t require any nuzzling, thank you. He had a dog.”

— Tessa Dare

141. “You’re mine,” he said hoarsely, lifting his head and staring deep into her eyes, willing her to believe. “If you leave, I will follow. Do you hear me? I will follow and find you and cart you home.”

— Tessa Dare

142. “Squabbling over too little is just human nature. But it says a great deal about a person, what they do with abundance.”

— Tessa Dare

143. “Amazing, then, how with that one remark, he made a mortifying situation thirteen times worse.”

— Tessa Dare

144. “An appointment? With whom?” He swept her with a warm, caressing gaze. “With an angel, apparently.” She clucked her tongue. “More teasing.” “No teasing. I am here for you.” “If that’s not teasing, it’s a flat-out lie.” He inched the chair forward, desperate to close the distance between them. He spoke to her quietly, honestly. From the depths of his cold, longsuffering heart. “I’m here for you, mon ange. Violet. I would cross a world for you.”

— Tessa Dare

145. “I’m a rather useless insomniac viscount, but” – he gestured at Minerva – “my companion here is a brilliant geologist. There’s a symposium, you see. We need to get to Edinburgh by tomorrow, so she can present her findings about giant lizards and possibly alter our understanding of the world’s natural history.”

— Tessa Dare

146. “You’ll be five-and-thirty this year, Griffy.” “Yes. Which makes me much too old to be called ‘Griffy.’ ” “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.” “Your decline?” He laughed. “Tell me, Mother, how can I hasten that happy process? Other than offering a firm push.” Her eyebrow arched in amusement. “Just try it.”

— Tessa Dare

147. “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.”

— Tessa Dare

148. “She turned to him in disbelief. “Why would you spoil the ending?” “I didn’t spoil it. It’s a Shakespearean tragedy. They’re all that way. Everyone dies; the end.”

— Tessa Dare

149. “She sketched songbirds when she was supposed to be minding her lessons, and she sketched church mice when she was meant to be at prayer. When she had time to ramble out of doors, anything in Nature was fair game- from the shoots of clover between her toes to any cloud that meandered overhead.”

— Tessa Dare

150. “Love me. Don’t ever stop. You hear me? It won’t be this good with anyone else. Only me, Min. Only me.”

— Tessa Dare