Showing results by author "Piper Kroft" in All Categories

He’s my best friend’s dad. I’ve known him since freshman year. And I’m currently barefoot in his kitchen at 6 AM wearing his shirt. Dr. Dominic Cross. Chief of cardiology. Forty-eight. Salt at the temples, steady hands, and blue-gray eyes that have never once looked at me the way they’re looking at me now. I’m a pastry chef between jobs and apartments. Sadie—his daughter, my best friend—offered me the guest room. Just temporary. A few weeks. Until I’m back on my feet. Then Sadie left for a six-week work trip. And it’s just us. His too-quiet house. My flour on his ...

I slept with a stranger on a plane. First class. 35,000 feet. The most reckless night of my life. Then I started my new job. He’s Dr. Hawthorne. Senior partner. Silver-templed. Hands that deliver babies for a living and a voice that could talk a woman out of every promise she’s ever made to herself. He’s also my boss. My father’s trusted colleague. The man my dad personally asked to look after me. I should have run. I should have transferred. I should have done anything other than fall into his arms after hours and let him take me apart all over again. Now I’m pregnant. And he’s...

Twenty-five days. Twenty-five dares. One European DJ she was never supposed to keep. Burned-out elementary school teacher Harper Lane has one plan for December: escape. No parents, no students, no staff meetings—just a girls’ trip to the Swiss party town of Verbier with her two best friends, a chalet full of twinkle lights, and a private “25 Days of Naughty” dare list they swear they’ll actually follow this year. Then they walk into the hottest club in the Alps… and Harper meets Nico. He’s the tattooed, wickedly charming DJ who turns her first dare into a filthy, laughing, “...

He’s been ordering coffee from me for eight months. He doesn’t even know my name. Dr. Beckett Harlow. Plastic surgeon. Silver at the temples. The kind of man who walks into a room and the room sits up straighter. I’m the girl behind the counter. I make his Americano. I draw his hands in my sketchbook when no one’s looking. And I have never once existed to him beyond the words “the usual.” Then he shows up after my shift with a proposition. His ex-wife is being honored at a five-day medical conference in Chicago. He needs a date. Someone outside his world. Someone who won’t ...

Twenty-five days. Three couples. One dare that blows up everything they thought they knew about love. Mara Lewis has been thinking some naughty thoughts—and, with the holidays here, she finally decides to say them out loud. At a sticky bar table with her boyfriend, Darius, she speaks her mind. Forget Secret Santa—what about a partner swap? Their friends, the perfect-on-paper Alice and Ryan, and the rule-following Lina and her older husband Charles, are used to her jokes. Only this time—nobody laughs it off. One napkin, too many cocktails, and a ridiculous list later, six signatures ...

I left him at the altar ten years ago. Now I'm back in his town, serving his coffee, and falling for his entire crew. When my life in the city collapsed, I had nowhere left to go but the hometown I swore I’d never return to. Pinebrook. Population three thousand. Where everyone knows your business and no one forgets you ran. I get my old waitressing job back. First shift, the lunch rush brings in three firefighters. Including the man I was supposed to marry. Thatcher—the fire chief I left without a word. He looks at me like I’m a ghost he wants to stop haunting him. Declan—my ...

I came for a job. I stayed for three silver foxes who fight fires by day and set me ablaze by night. When I answered the nanny ad at 2 AM, I was broke, desperate, and running from an ex who thought he owned me. Live-in position. Four kids. Room and board included. What the ad didn’t mention? The three single dads are seasoned firefighters with salt-and-pepper hair, broad shoulders, and the kind of authority that makes my knees weak. Corwin—the gruff captain who fights our attraction the hardest. Dash—the charming lieutenant who makes the first move. Brennan—the quiet protector who ...

One small town. One snowed-in night. One life-changing plus sign. Back home for the holidays, Nora Harper is braced for nosy questions and old ghosts—until a grocery aisle run-in with her high school almost-first-love turns into a quiet, irresistible second chance. Evan Holt stayed and built The Frosted Pine into the warm heart of the town. He pours cinnamon old fashioneds and offers Nora something she hasn’t felt in years: a soft place to land. When a whiteout strands them above the bar, honest talk and slow kisses turn into something deeper… and weeks later, two pink lines change ...

I came here to fight fires, not fall for my entire crew. But 48-hour shifts and shared bunks make it hard to keep things professional. After my ex destroyed my reputation at my old station, I requested the most remote posting I could find. Hadley Ridge. Population nine hundred. One fire station. Three-man crew. They didn’t ask for a transfer. Especially not a woman from the city. Colt—the captain who runs this station like it’s the only thing keeping him sane. He looks at me like I’m a problem he didn’t ask for. Hollis—the lieutenant who’ll judge me on the job and nothing else...

I came to shut their station down. They made me want to burn it all to stay. When the state sends me to evaluate a rural fire station flagged for safety violations, I know what to expect. Outdated equipment, sloppy records, a crew that resents me on sight. What I didn’t expect? Three seasoned firefighters who hate me before I’ve opened my clipboard, and look good doing it: Nash—the captain who built this station from nothing. He takes my inspection like a personal insult. Archer—the lieutenant with quiet intelligence and the kind of patience that makes me reckless. Ty—the one who ...

My car died on a mountain road in a snowstorm. Three firefighters pulled me out of the cold. I never left. I wasn’t headed anywhere in particular. I was just driving—away from a husband who controlled every breath I took, with my four-year-old daughter asleep in the back seat and everything we own in the trunk. Then the engine died. No signal. Temperature dropping. And headlights cut through the snow. Roane—the captain who gave us his office to sleep in and didn’t ask a single question I wasn’t ready to answer. Jude—the lieutenant whose warmth made me feel safe for the first ...

The only thing worse than falling for your brother’s best friend? Getting snowed in with him at Christmas… and ending up pregnant. Lena Hart had a plan: climb the Manhattan ad world, win the awards, prove everyone in her tiny hometown wrong. Instead, she burned out, cursed out her boss, and drove home for the first Christmas since her dad died—car held together with duct tape and denial. When her engine dies under a flickering sign for Cole Auto & Repair, the universe twists the knife: the mechanic who comes to the rescue is Mason Cole… her brother’s best friend. The guy who ...

A fake wife. A Christmas deadline. A billionaire boss who was never supposed to touch her. When rising NYC associate Avery Quinn volunteers to play the devoted wife of her impossibly hot boss for twenty-five days, it’s supposed to be simple: wear a ring, smile for a powerful client, secure the deal… and finally earn the promotion she’s fought for. What she didn’t expect was moving into his penthouse, sharing holiday events like a real couple, or the way he looks at her when no one else is watching. But the client isn’t just a traditional investor—he expects his business partners...

When Alicia Bardell comes up short for the holidays, she regretfully takes the one job she can get on short notice: working part-time as Santa’s little helper at the local small-town mall’s Christmas display. One big problem… this year’s Santa? He’s her “ex,” aka her one-night stand—and her best friend’s older brother. One other small problem—she’s pregnant. With Santa’s baby. She’s thought about telling him, but he seemed like a creep. Or at least, he left a sour taste after the one night they spent together. At best, just another charming no-good who’d vanish ...

Snowed in. One bed. One second chance to get it right. When burned-out wedding planner Holly Hart returns to the mountain inn that raised her, the forecast promises a blizzard—and a foreclosure notice. The last person she expects on the porch is her first love, Noah Reid, now a gruffly capable developer with a toolbox, a generator, and… unfinished business. Whiteout winds force them into one warm room and a ceasefire of convenience. Christmas Eve brings a make-or-break choice: gut the heart of the inn for quick money—or fight for the place that feeds a town. He brings a preservation ...