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

As soon as the coils beneath their butts started to warm, Peter rubbed his hands together in front of the cold air blowing from the vents and muttered, “So our asses are hot and the rest of our bodies are freezing. This is the latest in technology? No, wait. If this was a Lexuswith heated seats—”


“I’m not buying a Lexus,” Jonathan told him. “Like the song says, you just have to let it go.”


Peter frowned at him in the car’s darkened interior. “What song?”


“That Disney one, you know.” Jonathan drew in a breath; he didn’t know anything except a line or two from the chorus, but he’d sing those, if he had to. Did Peter really not know it? Had he lived under a rock for the past few years, or something?


Before Jonathan could belt out the words, though, Peter covered his ears with his hands. “No, don’t, please! Don’t sing. I believe you. God, what do you have against nice cars?”


Chapter 16