She withdrew her hand. I’m just saying that if you ever had any hope of intimidating me, it disappeared that summer. So don’t even think about dueling. You’re not a man who’d kill another in cold blood. For Sebastian, of course, the bedding would be no chore. He’d imagined making love to her more than once. They’re outside, in the coach that Giles hired. We were going to leave for the honeymoon directly after the wedding.” Thank goodness they’d planned for a small ceremony at the church, with no wedding breakfast. At least there weren’t many witnesses to her humiliation. Sebastian appointed himself as Mary’s knight. He and only he can protect her. So he does, even if it means marrying her himself, which is no penance when he has longed for her for over a decade. His Bride for the Taking is a stand alone novella by Tessa Dare that was oringinally in 2018 as a part of the Rogues Rush In: a Regency Duet.

I loved a lot about this. The fact that Mary is two years older. The fact that it doesn't feel like instalove because they've both been secretly in love with the other one for YEARS. And the fact that their first fight as a married couple is about how to assemble the frame and slats on a Swedish bed frame without instructions (*cough* IKEA *cough*). Mary has been left at the alter and will be ruined. Sebastian has loved Mary from afar for years but she was the sister of his best friend and even after the death of Mary’s brother, he can’t break the pact they made as children that she would be hands off to him. But, he also can’t let her be ruined; Sebastian decides he will save Mary and marry her, it is the least he can do for his dead friend when there is no one else to take care of her.

Goodness. For once, she was caught without a response. He’d taken her breath away. She’d already lost her father, then her only brother. Mary was suddenly curious about the impolite ways to say it. But that wasn’t a conversation for the moment. They’ll assume we anticipated the wedding vows.

It was such a sad and heartbreaking story about two people who assumed too much and hurt the other in process, the one they should have cheered and protected. I may be one the few who enjoy reading ‘Novellas’ and this one was no different. Short, sweet and a perfect filler / mood lifter / feel gooder that ever was. It was the first rule of friendship among gentlemen: Never, ever lay a hand on your best friend’s sister.

Sebastian Ives, Lord Byrne, doesn't usually follow the rules, but he value friendship above all and the most important principle of it is don't touch your best friend's sister. For eleven years he kept his promise to himself but when Mary's reputation is at stake, the honorable Sebastian will do whatever it take, even if it means take the place of the no-show groom at the altar.