How do you cope when you know a relationship just can't work?

My best friend and I have lately started feeling more for each other than we should. We are extremely close, spend all our time together and can tell each other anything. We basically have a loving relationship, just without the sex. Yes, we are both single.

We have both admitted to stronger feelings but both of us are afraid to take it further. Neither of us wants to put our friendship at risk and then there is the age difference to take into account.

Lately this has been bugging me more and more - how do I stop these feelings and just enjoy the friendship we have? He is very important to me and I don't want to lose his friendship by doing things to drive him away.