Pucking Mine, Daddy

She took the nanny job before she knew whose house she was walking into.
One reckless night in a bar. A stranger named Cole. A morning she told herself meant nothing — because she was leaving, and he was just a beautiful mistake.
That was four days ago.
Now she's standing in his foyer, suitcase in hand, and Cole Halberg is staring at her like she's every complication he cannot afford.
He's a professional hockey coach. A single father fighting for full custody of the little girl who is his entire world. His lawyer's instructions were simple: be steady. Be respectable. Be nothing like this.
Elara knows she should walk out the door.
She stays. Because his daughter — this small, dragon-obsessed, completely irresistible little person — looks at her on the first morning and says stay.
And then Cole looks at her the same way.
The rules they set make perfect sense on paper.
They last approximately eleven days.

Because the more Elara sees of the man behind the walls — the father who shows up, the one who leaves coffee notes and calls them logistics, the one who is so terrified of wanting something that he'll burn it down before it can be taken — **the less she can pretend this is just a job.**And Cole, who has spent two years building a life that looks like stability, is starting to realize that **the most dangerous thing in his house isn't the custody hearing.**It's her.
What happens when the one person who was never supposed to stay is the only one he can't ask to leave?

A forbidden single dad hockey romance with:
One-night stand → shock reunion
Nanny / boss forbidden romance
Grumpy hockey coach + sunshine heroine
Found family (and one dragon-obsessed little girl)
Custody battle stakes
No third-act breakup · HEA guaranteed