The Royal Heir - Dancing with my eyes closed

Sneaky wine guy

The drive down to Ramsford is a fun one. The sun is shining, the car windows are down, and I'm singing at the top of my voice to every song that comes on my completely brilliant playlist that my boyfriend is begrudgingly letting me play, while admiring the view; and by that I don't mean the scenery out of the car windows, I mean my boyfriend. And when he even sings along with me to some of the songs, I honestly don't think life is ever gonna get better than this.

As we get close to our destination, I use my phone app to navigate Tommy towards the hotel car-park. He thinks we're just parking there to start with, and so when I tell him we've got the executive suite for the next 24 hours he's visibly impressed. We check in, take in our luxurious surroundings, and just about have time to horribly abuse them before we need to get ready for the party.

I'm currently laid out on the bed, just in my boxers, watching my sexy man intently as he unfortunately but necessarily gets dressed. He's putting on that red shirt and a smart pair of trousers, and he's wearing a grin that I can tell he wants to suppress to appear more cool, but he just can't, not after what we just did anyway. And I can relate to that. I'm still grinning too.

"So, who am I meeting tonight?" I ask him, eyes on his reflection in the mirror as he checks his appearance. "Anything I should know?"

"My best friend Kate, and our other friends," he says, a sparkle of excitement in his big brown eyes that turns me to mush; I love that he's this excited about introducing me to these guys. And I'm just as excited to finally get to step into his world, or at least have a glimpse of what his world was like before I came along. "Joey, Freddie, Angelica and Jay."

"And you know these guys from...?" I'm curious as to how Anna and Sam fit into his friendship circle. I'm really hoping I don't run into either of them tonight.

"We all went to school together," he says. "Ramsford High."

"Aw, when you all wore those funny little burgundy uniforms, right?" I chuckle. "The heights of polyester discomfort!"

"Surely you wore a uniform at your poncy private school..."

"Well, we were supposed to, but most of the time you could get away with it if you were best buddies with the most important student in the school.." I wink at him.

"Nah, I reckon you did." He turns to face me. "That's why you still wear the same thing almost every day..."

Ooof. "What you mean is, I have an assured sense of personal style! And I don't always wear..."

"Oh no? What are you wearing tonight, blue eyes?"

I sheepishly look over at the black Gucci shirt hanging up on the front of the wardrobe.

"Unbelievable." He shakes his head, and goes to get said shirt.

"Well, you want your friends to meet me at my most authentic, right?"

"True," he says, coming to sit with me. I sit up next to him, and he wraps my shirt around my shoulders. "I want them to meet the real you. Not the you they think they know."

"Huh, the me you thought you knew before we met?" I giggle, sliding my arms into my sleeves in turn.

"I think I had a good idea of the real you even then," he assures me, as he starts to do up my shirt buttons, sneaking a little tender brush of my chest below each one before he secures it.

"Yeah. You've always seen me for me," I acknowledge. I love that about him. "So, what's the story? Do they know you're working for me?"

"No, which makes this even more fun," he sighs, still grinning. "They know I'm working at a vineyard in Valtoria, but I haven't told them whereabouts in Valtoria it is. It's not common knowledge that you've got a vineyard at the manor, is it?"