Am I going to get lucky? Maybe if the hunky nerd I met yesterday takes me up on my invite to attend High Five's St. Paddy's Day party …Rachel Wagner, who’s sworn off dating apps, is the last single one in her friend group. Focused on running her thriving cleaning business in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the thirty-one-year-old is caught off guard when she stumbles upon a bearded nerd while cleaning her biggest client’s lake house.

When I'm forced to spend the holidays at home with my family in Strawberry Hollow, I have no idea how I'm even going to survive the week, let alone make it through my least favorite holiday… Christmas. That is until I run into my childhood crush and my brother's best friend, Parker Grant. Now, he's the sexy, off-limits doctor in our small town and nothing like the man I left behind six years ago.

I’ve scored the ultimate Christmas nannying gig, and my plans include:(1) Hanging with adorable, four-year-old Bea (2) Ice-skating (3) Visiting Santa at Harrods. They do not include: (1) Falling for Miles, Bea’s grumpy, loaded and unreasonably gorgeous dad (2) Miles peeling my top off (and his own) when Bea vomits all over us (3) Accidentally telling him to ‘make better use of me' over champagne Christmas is not going to plan.

Wanted: one hot billionaire to pose as my Christmas boyfriend. Must be willing to make my cheating ex jealous when you kiss me under the mistletoe at all the holiday parties. Bonus points if you make him cry. To my surprise my billionaire boss is more than up for the challenge of coming down the chimney as my holiday boyfriend. The sexy single dad desperately needs a plus one at a Christmas Eve wedding, where he’s the best man and I’m the maid of honor.

Stone was my best friend. My protector. My everything. Until he wasn’t. Kids like us didn’t have the best life, riddled with trauma, bounced around in a system that didn’t want us and couldn’t handle us. In our darkest hours, we had each other. Until we didn’t. We tried to hold on to what little we had. Maneuvering the rough waters of our circumstance. Until I couldn’t.

After a bad breakup, Nola wants nothing to do with Christmas, especially in her quaint hometown of Bright Harbor, Maine. Infuriatingly charming and cheery, Nola’s surroundings only worsen her sour mood. To make matters worse, Caleb, the boy who broke her heart years ago, is all grown up and still living in town. While doing her best to avoid him, Nola bumps into the local mailman, who gives her a mysterious letter. And when she finds that the writer is a fellow Scrooge, she can’t help but feel her spirit lifting.

Evie Crowe is starting over in a strange town with her newborn, and men are the furthest thing from her mind. If only the quiet, hulking farmer, Luke Ward, would stop coming into the thrift shop and piquing her reluctant interest. Evie wants to stay single all the way—she can’t trust anything more than friends-with-holiday-benefits. But Luke is in it for the long haul. He’s fixed on making this a Christmas Evie will remember forever. If she gives him a chance.

When Everleigh Dangerfield’s baking disaster necessitates a call to 911, firefighter Griffin Brantley douses the flames in the kitchen, but the ones he stokes in Everleigh are an entirely different story. Unfortunately, Everleigh’s only visiting and doesn’t do casual hookups, no matter how smoldering the temptation. But Everleigh’s holiday mishaps have just begun. And Griffin is seemingly always on call. If Everleigh is game for a change of plans, he can give her the merriest Christmas of her life.

My to do list: Revive my crashed PR career. Turn around the Kringle family business by Christmas. Convince my ex-boyfriend, NHL legend Matt “the Mountain” Kringle, to help me, even though I broke his heart when we were seventeen. Easy, right? Matt is huge, he’s hot, and he’s the grumpiest player in the league. I’ll have to brave his bad attitude and his sexy beard if I want him to help bail out the family business and put my career back on track.

Ella, a desperate, newly single goth girl with a mountain of debt, would do anything to see her parents this Christmas… the problem is, her parents live on the other side of the world. So, when she's granted access to The Naughty List—a marketplace for dirty proposals from rich strangers—she opts to take everything and anything she can get. She thinks she's a good player, getting five-star reviews like a good girl and climbing the ranks, until she stumbles onto The Naughty List's most daring group of all… The Hardcorers.

You want to know the secret to everlasting happiness? Never fall in love. That was the wisdom my father imparted to us James boys after our mom died, and it’s a piece of advice that’s served me well. Until dear old Dad asks me for a favor over Sunday brunch. No big deal, right? I love making my old man happy. Except this “favor” is a lot more complicated than picking up his dry cleaning. Dad wants me to marry and provide a few heirs for the James empire, and he’s even done me the courtesy of handpicking my bride-to-be. Lucky me.

Is it reckless for a master’s student to blur the lines with her hot, older professor—a legendary storm chaser? Without a doubt. But when a tornado strikes during Finley and Professor West’s first chase together, something far more dangerous than the storm pulls them in. Boundaries shatter, and so do their reservations. Now, as they tear across Oklahoma with his famous storm chasing team, he’s adamant: they crossed a line that should never have been crossed. He’s her professor, and she’s his student—nothing more.

Nina and William are underpaid adjunct professors at the same university, where winter break is no break at all: ’tis the season to make extra money. When their holiday side hustle has them stranded by a blinding blizzard in the middle of nowhere, there’s nothing to do but cuddle up for warmth and play a hot and bothered game of Never Have I Ever to pass the time. But in the game of love, secrets never stay secret for long…

All Evie Cruz wants for Christmas is a nap. And maybe some ornaments for her naked Christmas tree. And while she’s making a list, she wouldn’t mind unwrapping her sexy upstairs neighbor like a present. Luckily, the building’s Santa-themed party and a surprise sprig of mistletoe give her just the opening she needs to make all her wishes come true.

My name is Caroline "Candy" Cane, I own a country inn, date a man who runs a Christmas tree farm, and my mom's peppermint fudge wins first place at the Reindeer Corners' festival every year. Basically, I'm living every romance-loving girlie's small town dream. Until a last minute trip to New York City leads to catching my boyfriend banging a Rockette (in full elf costume). So, when I'm offered a chance to star in a hospitality-themed reality show, I jump at the chance to serve hot cocoa in roller skates on national television.

Meet Randi Burnett—she’s brilliant, she’s beautiful, and she works for the bride. Missing groom? Intoxicated in-laws? Crying ring-bearer? You name it, she wrangles it. Too bad her personal life isn’t thriving like her side gig as a bridesmaid for hire. Recently dumped, Randi throws herself into her biggest challenge yet when she’s hired as a maid of honor and pretend best friend for an ice queen bride. There’s just one problem—the best man is infuriating, overprotective, and anti-marriage.

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of best-selling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.

I'm addicted to my stalker. He watches me at night, sneaking in through my living room window and making my blood turn to ice. I feel him all around me as chills snake down my spine. Each night he becomes bolder, getting closer and welcoming himself into my bedroom, feeding his addiction.

Ryder, Garrett, Kenzo, and Diesel - The Vipers. Their deals are as sordid as their business, and their reputation is enough to bring a grown man to his knees, forcing him to beg for mercy. They are not people you mess with, yet my dad did. The old man ran up a debt with them and then sold me to cover his losses. Yes, sold me. They own me now. I’m theirs in every sense of the word. But I’ve never been meek and compliant.

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much.

Am I going to get lucky? Maybe if the hunky nerd I met yesterday takes me up on my invite to attend High Five's St. Paddy's Day party …Rachel Wagner, who’s sworn off dating apps, is the last single one in her friend group. Focused on running her thriving cleaning business in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the thirty-one-year-old is caught off guard when she stumbles upon a bearded nerd while cleaning her biggest client’s lake house.

God grant me the serenity to not choke the wildcard of rich b*tches... Charlie f--king McAllister. My best friend's little sister and tormentor extraordinaire. Star of my every trauma as a teenager. And thanks to our mothers and their matchmaking schemes for our annual ski week… my savior. Or ruin. One week as a couple, putting on a show for our parents while avoiding our exes. How hard could it be? Until we're stuck sharing a room. A room with one bed. And a toy arsenal the spawn brought with her big enough to subdue a small country.

When I'm forced to spend the holidays at home with my family in Strawberry Hollow, I have no idea how I'm even going to survive the week, let alone make it through my least favorite holiday… Christmas. That is until I run into my childhood crush and my brother's best friend, Parker Grant. Now, he's the sexy, off-limits doctor in our small town and nothing like the man I left behind six years ago.

I was the big man on campus. Everything in my life was going exactly according to plan until a wrecking ball reminded me that there were more important things than touchdowns, booze, and pretty girls. In the most turbulent time of my life, I felt lost and defeated until the moment my eyes landed on her. Sophia Summers is everything I never knew I wanted. A sweet shot of sunshine in the unrelenting hurricane. There's just one little problem. She doesn't trust in love, and she definitely doesn't trust me.

Two years ago, I had the hottest night of my life with a woman who didn’t want to tell me her name—and in a tequila-fueled fever dream, I agreed. She was funny, sexy, and after I got past her brittle shell, secretly very sweet. In the morning, she was gone. I’ve looked for her in every city I’ve played in since. That night ruined me for anyone else, but the woman I only know as “Jersey Girl” never showed up at another game. Not until I skate onto brand new ice as part of the NHL’s latest team. And there she is, in the stands at our season opening game. Very carefully not looking at me.

With the name Holliday, you’d think I’d be all about the Christmas season. Most years, I am, but this one not so much. Between my ex being a real Scrooge-in-the-backside, re-entering the workforce, wrangling my two children, and evading my eight-year-old’s questions about Santa’s existence, I’m struggling to believe in the magic myself.

My to do list: Revive my crashed PR career. Turn around the Kringle family business by Christmas. Convince my ex-boyfriend, NHL legend Matt “the Mountain” Kringle, to help me, even though I broke his heart when we were seventeen. Easy, right? Matt is huge, he’s hot, and he’s the grumpiest player in the league. I’ll have to brave his bad attitude and his sexy beard if I want him to help bail out the family business and put my career back on track.

That should be a good thing, right? Eggnog and Christmas carols. Mistletoe and family. Except my dad broke his leg hanging the family wreath. My brothers are at war over taking proper care of Dad. Oh, and I just found out our family business, the Kringle Inn, is failing!

Once upon a time, people called me the holiday queen. But catching my husband under the Christmas tree with another woman kind of did something to me. Like make me digitally crop him out of all our wedding photos and post them online. Thanks to all the requests I received to do the same for other jilted partners, I started a new business called the Holiday Ex-Files. Then along comes my ex-husband’s best friend, Noah Cullen. He has a plan to help me believe in the magic of holidays again. Maybe, just maybe, it will be a very merry Christmas after all.

I’ve scored the ultimate Christmas nannying gig, and my plans include:(1) Hanging with adorable, four-year-old Bea (2) Ice-skating (3) Visiting Santa at Harrods. They do not include: (1) Falling for Miles, Bea’s grumpy, loaded and unreasonably gorgeous dad (2) Miles peeling my top off (and his own) when Bea vomits all over us (3) Accidentally telling him to ‘make better use of me' over champagne Christmas is not going to plan.

I thought I was over him. That his good looks and British accent couldn’t affect me anymore. But the minute our eyes lock across the elevator, all those feelings come roaring back to life. Then I find out we’re competing for the same job. Next comes the realization that we have to spend a week together on a ski vacation because of some six-degree-of-separation nonsense. The real kicker is when I find out the two of us have to share a villa. A very small, very cozy villa.

When you kiss your perfect boyfriend under the mistletoe...only for your cousin scream to the family that you stole her man, you realize that you will never again have a merry Christmas. In my defense, I didn’t know my boss—yup, boss. Buckle up because this is messy—was my cousin’s newly minted and totally lying fiancé. I thought he was the Nutcracker Prince come to finally show my family that I, too, was worthy of putting the star atop the Christmas tree.

This is a story about a cabin in a small town, a workaholic New Yorker who hates the holidays, and a hot-nerd local doctor who loves Christmas...and flirting. It starts to snow. There is also a dog.

Alexander, Lord Burlington, hates the holidays. But duty calls. This year he’s willing to set his feelings aside for the sake of his eldest brother who’s just been left at the altar—sending shockwaves through British high society—as they escape London for the snow capped mountains of Aspen. However, it soon becomes obvious that Colorado in December wasn’t the best place to go for someone who usually out-grinches The Grinch.

New York Times best-selling authors Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward bring you three sexy short stories to heat up your holidays: "Sexy Scrooge", "The Merry Mistake", and "Kissmas in New York".