Jonathan Banks and Peter Giles have worked together for five years, business partners in a planning firm that bears both their names. From the moment Jonathan was hired, the attraction between the two men was instantaneous and mutual, but he was dating someone else at the time and turned down Peter’s advances.<br><br>Now Jonathan’s boyfriend is out of the picture, and he’d love nothing more than for Peter to ask him out again, but he knows his partner all too well. Peter doesn’t take rejection easily. He likes flirting with Jonathan, sure, but doesn’t want to take the chance of getting turned down a second time. He's satisfied with the way their friendship is, and fears anything more intimate might ruin what they already have.<br><br>But everything both men have planned and worked for together is threatened on a cold, wintry evening when Peter’s car won’t start and Jonathan has to give him a lift home. Can the two friends move past their own fears and trepidations, and begin to build a future together as partners outside the office?

Not According to Plan

“And onions?” Jonathan griped as the waitress walked away. “So this really isn’ta date then, because there’s no way in hell you’re getting a good night kiss with onion breath.”


Peter laughed. “I never said it was a date.”


But Jonathan had him there. “Back at the office you did. As we were getting ready to leave. Don’t tell me you forgot already.”


“I don’t date employees,” Peter said.


And they were back to that again. “So I aman employee.” Jonathan nodded, as if he’d expected as much. “I get it, I do. I’m on the payroll, after all. My name comes second on the letterhead—”


“It sounds better that way!” Peter cried, exasperated. “Giles and Banks, Jesus! We talked that into the ground before we incorporated the firm. Don’t bring it back up now.”


Biting the inside of his cheek to keep from smirking, Jonathan asked, “Jesus? Is he a voting member of the board, too?”


Chapter 6