Tessa Marlowe built her entire career teaching other people how to fall in love — without ever risking her own heart. But when her publisher demands proof that her dating rules actually work, Tessa makes a reckless Christmas vow: she’ll use her own twelve rules to make a man fall for her before Christmas Eve. She thinks she’s in control. She thinks it’s just research. She thinks she’ll choose the man. Then Rowan Blake walks into her life like trouble wrapped in winter heat — all warm eyes, wicked smiles, and a spark that burns straight through her carefully practiced detachment. He isn’t the “test subject” she planned. He’s temptation — alive, unpredictable, and absolutely devastating. Every rule collapses the moment he pulls her into spontaneous midnight adventures, whispers things she’s never allowed herself to feel, and makes her start wanting something her book never dared to promise: a love that’s messy, wild, and completely unscripted. Twelve days. One magnetic stranger. And a chemistry so electric it could rewrite everything she thought she knew about love.