Love Bytes is delighted to welcome to their blog author Neil S. Plakcy joining us today to share an exclusive excerpt of his new release Driven Together.
Check out the excerpt and Neil brought a dowload link for a deleted scene exclusively for our readers, at the bottom of the post!
Welcome Neil 🙂
Jonathan leaned his forearms on the railing, looking out over the Mediterranean instead of at me. The lights of Monaco shimmered across the water, and somewhere behind us the Grand Prix crowds buzzed through restaurants, yachts, and crowded streets.
“The thing no one tells you,” he said, “is how provisional everything feels. You learn not to build a life that needs too much from you, because the sport doesn’t care if you fall behind.”
He exhaled, slow and controlled. Then, more softly, “It gets lonely.” He was quiet for a moment. “The Formula 1 lifestyle doesn’t exactly encourage long-term relationships. It’s hard to explain to someone why you’re willing to risk your life twenty-four weekends a year for the sake of driving in circles.”
That wasn’t what I’d expected.
“What about you?” he asked. “Relationships?”
“A few. Nothing that stuck.” I hesitated. “Hard to measure everyone against perfection, you know?”
Jonathan went very still. “Perfection?”
“Us,” I said. The word surprised me with how easily it came. “What we had. It was brief, but it was perfect.”
He didn’t argue. He just nodded once. “I used to think about you,” he said. “Especially early on. I’d see something. A good piece of writing, someone making coffee the way you used to, and I’d wonder what would’ve happened if we’d been braver.”
“We weren’t cowardly,” I said. “We were practical.”
“Were we?” He glanced at me. “Or were we just scared?”
The question hung between us. Ten years of it.
“Maybe both,” I said.
We began to walk, but I stopped. Jonathan took another step before he noticed, then turned back. “What?”
“I’m trying to decide,” I said, “whether to say the honest thing or the easy thing.”
Jonathan didn’t rush me. That was one of the things I’d loved about him once. He waited.
“The honest thing,” I went on, “is that when we were younger, loving you felt like stepping into a world where everything came with invisible terms attached. Not ones you set. Just… ones that were always there.”
His brow furrowed slightly, but he didn’t interrupt.
“I was used to earning my place,” I said. “Grades. Work. Bylines. I knew where I stood because I could measure it. With you, I couldn’t. And I didn’t know how to ask for reassurance without feeling like I was already losing.”
Jonathan exhaled slowly. “So you left.”
“I left before I could resent you,” I said. “Before I resented myself.”
For a moment, the night filled the space between us, footsteps, distant traffic, the quiet lap of water against stone.
“I never stopped wondering,” he said finally, “if I should’ve fought harder.”
“Maybe we both should have,” I said. Then, softer: “But we didn’t know how yet.”
I met his eyes. The truth sat between us, not solved, but named.
We began to walk again, the streets quieter now, the night gentler. Eventually, the familiar hotel façade came into view.
“I should head in,” I said. “Early morning tomorrow.”
“Of course.” He hesitated, then added, “I’m glad you’re here, Waldo. I’ve missed talking to you.”
“I’ve missed it too.”
A beat. Then, carefully: “Would you have dinner with me tomorrow night? Somewhere quiet. No paddock, no sponsors. Just… us.”
I knew I should say no. For professionalism. For self-preservation. For all the reasons that had once felt responsible.
Instead, I nodded. “Dinner sounds good.”
His smile was unmistakable. Relief, hope, something dangerously close to joy. “Eight?”
“I’ll be ready.”
He squeezed my hand once. Brief, deliberate, and stepped back.
“Sleep well,” he said. “Monaco rewards the brave, and the well-rested.”
I watched him disappear into the glittering night, my pulse still racing.
Ten years ago, we’d loved each other carefully and still managed to break everything.
Maybe this time, it was worth choosing bravery.
Driven Together: A High-Stakes Formula 1 Romance
Blurb:
They were each other’s first love—and the one that got away.
When journalist Wally Pulaski reunites with his college sweetheart Jonathan Hirsch, now a Formula 1 driver, old feelings ignite with dangerous speed. Jonathan is fighting for the championship of his life. Wally is assigned to cover the season, reporting every triumph and failure to a global audience that demands objectivity. Falling in love again could cost them everything they’ve built.
As the Formula 1 circus sweeps from Monaco’s glittering streets to historic European circuits and roaring modern tracks, Wally is pulled deeper into a world of precision engineering, split-second decisions, and relentless scrutiny. Behind the glamour lies a sport where careers are made and broken in fractions of a second, where every personal choice is magnified under the spotlight.
Balancing professional integrity with unresolved passion becomes a high-wire act. Media pressure mounts. Rivalries intensify. And the closer Jonathan comes to his dream, the harder it is for either man to pretend their hearts aren’t still in the race.
Driven Together is a second-chance MM romance set against the adrenaline and international spectacle of Formula 1. Combining the emotional depth of Tal Bauer and the sports-romance energy loved by readers of Rachel Reid, it delivers an intimate story of ambition, identity, and the courage to choose love in a world that never slows down.
As the season intensifies and the spotlight grows harsher, Wally and Jonathan must decide what they’re willing to risk for a second chance at the love they never forgot. Because in Formula 1, every fraction of a second matters—and so does every choice of the heart.
Ten years after losing each other, they have one chance to get it right—and this time, the stakes are higher than ever.
Driven Together features:
- Second-chance MM romance
• Formula 1 glamour and behind-the-scenes access
• High-stakes sports competition
• International settings and armchair travel
• Mature protagonists with real-world careers
• Slow-burn emotional tension
• Found family and father-son bonds
• A hard-won, satisfying HEA
BUY LINK: Amazon
Neil S. Plakcy writes romance about men finding connection, courage, and a place to belong. In Driven Together, he explores the thrill of second chances against the high-stakes world of Formula 1 racing.
Neil has been with his husband for more than twenty-seven years, and he brings that lived experience of long-term love to the relationships he writes about—stories where passion, ambition, and vulnerability collide.
He is also the author of the adventure romance The Big Race and the Love on… series of South Beach romances, where friendships, rivalries, and unexpected attraction play out under the Miami sun.
His website is www.mahubooks.com and you can find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/neil.plakcy. Sign up for his newsletter at Plakcy.substack.com to get free short stories, prologues and epilogues.
He is offering Love Bytes readers this free deleted scene from Driven Together: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/rg80voc7hp
