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

He regrets what he said to me in the hospital, that’s what this is,Jonathan thought, studying Peter’s handsome features. He really doesn’t want to date someone he works with, even if it isme. But he got scared, he can’t deny the way he feels about me, and when he thought he was going to lose me, he couldn’t hide it. Now that I’m on the mend, he’s pulled back again.


How Jonathan hated the little voice inside his head. So sensible, so straightforward. So true


Face it, that voice whispered to himHe’d rather stay friends than become anything more, all because you turned him down five fucking years ago. You don’t need a guy with a memory that long. If he won’t let something like this go, what the hell’s he like in a relationship?


Jonathan didn’t know, but sweet Lord above, was it too much to ask for a chance to find out?


Chapter 15