The Royal Heir - The Valtoria Diaries 2

I don't need this evening to become even more challenging

"Am I pulling this off? Or is it too much?"

Drake straightened his suit collar self-consciously in front of the mirror in his palace room, first looking at his reflection, but soon distracted by the stunning sight that stood behind it, now drawing closer. He made eye contact with Hana's reflection as she placed her hands on his collar now, quickly straightening it up.

"Perfect," she told him. "You should be more confident in a suit."

And maybe he should. Maybe she gave him confidence. He nodded, and smiled. "Thanks, Hana."

He turned around, and she launched up on her tiptoes to kiss him playfully. His eyes flickered shut as he let his hands explore the golden patterning of her amazing dress. When he reopened them, he had to take in again how gorgeous she looked tonight. It was almost as if she was some sort of goddess.

Some sort of goddess with sadness in her eyes.

"What is it. Hana?"

"I have something to tell you," she said, shiftily, wringing her hands together.

Something told Drake he wasn't going to like this. "Go on."

"My parents are here in Cordonia. They decided to accept their invitation for the ball. I didn't know until yesterday."

Oh, damn. She must have been able to read the anxiety in his resulting expression. "Did you speak to them yesterday then?"

"Briefly, yes. Only over the telephone. They want to visit my home in Valtoria tomorrow."

He shook his head. "Did they finally ask you how you were doing after the crash?"

"They didn't mention it."

Hell. Those two miserable excuses for human beings made him angry at the best of times, but they'd never once reached out to Hana after the accident, which there was no way on Earth they could have missed in the press.

"Did you... tell them? About us?"

"No," she sighed, sitting down on his bed, smoothing down the duvet. "I wanted to speak to you first, see how you felt about it."

How he felt about it? He really didn't want Hana's parents finding out about them, well, not yet anyway. They hadn't really officially told their friends, although it was pretty obvious that they all knew. Drake just wanted tonight's ball to be drama free for everyone's sake, and to enjoy the feeling of having Hana by his side. If Lorelai and Xinghai knew about their daughter's new relationship, there would be drama.

"I figured as much," she said, her head low for a moment, before she lifted it bravely. "But I think we should tell them."

"Not tonight, though," he frowned. "It doesn't seem that long ago since they threw their toys out of the pram at Jones's lantern festival. You want a repeat of that?"

"No," Hana sighed. "But I'm afraid if we don't tell them, then they'll figure it out, and that could be worse."

"How? It's not like I'm going to be taking you up against the ballroom wall in front of everyone." He raised an eyebrow. "Well. Just say the word."

He'd hoped that would coax out a smile, and it did. "That wouldn't be appropriate. Okay. Perhaps tomorrow. As in, we tell them tomorrow. Not the other thing."

He sat down next to her, and let his fingers explore her immaculately plaited hair. "Hana, you know I want the world to know about us. But tonight's Jones's night. I'm not saying we should pretend not to be together. Let's just be discreet, so they don't figure it out for themselves. And, yeah. Tomorrow we can take them out for dinner in Valtoria or whatever and.. we can break it to them gently."