Holly Madison's boyfriend's band is called "All Time Low," but the reality star is on an all-time high, thanks to her man.

"He's a really down to earth guy," the Holly's World star told PEOPLE in Las Vegas at the opening of Recycled Percussion, fresh off a trip to Mexico with Jack Barakat, her boyfriend of nine months, who is the guitarist for the Baltimore-based band.

The duo plan on celebrating Valentine's weekend together at Tryst nightclub in Sin City. The low-key couple has come a long way since first meeting on Twitter and publicly debuting their romance at her 31st birthday in December.

"I feel like he's really real and he knows me for who I am," said Madison, who stars in the Las Vegas show PEEPSHOW. "I can say whatever in front of him and he's cool with it."

Her friends have already given her their seal of approval, as well, Madison said. "I love that Jack has a sense of humor and I can just be myself around him," she added. "I don't need to be like Miss Priss or Betty Crocker. I feel like every guy that I dated before him expected that."

Credit: Mark Gray for PEOPLE

For the first time, Peepshow star Holly Madison has talked about her new romance and how she’s kept it under the radar for six months. “It’s serious enough that neither of us are seeing anybody else,” she told me. “We kept it out of the public spotlight because we had no reason to flaunt it and get caught up in a media circus.”

Holly and pop punk rocker Jack Barakat posed together at Lavo in the Palazzo and Tao in The Venetian when the platinum blond reality TV star had her first advance celebration last week of her 31st birthday, which is Dec. 23. Vegas DeLuxe had hinted about the romance when Jack, who is the vocalist and guitarist for All Time Low, joined Holly on her Florida vacation in September.

Holly told me: “We first met in June when he played in a concert here. We’ve taken it slowly, but we have been having fun ever since -- and I’m very happy. He came with me on my vacation, and I’ll be honest: I like him a lot. He’s funny, gorgeous and sexy!

“We don’t know where it’s headed. We both understand we’ve both got showbiz careers, and that means we don’t spend a lot of time together. He lives in Baltimore but gets to spend a lot of time in Los Angeles, so I hop over when he’s there, and he hops over here, too. I’m working Christmas Day with the show at Planet Hollywood, and he’ll be with his family back East, but we’re both definitely hoping to see New Year’s in together. It was great he was here for my birthday.”

“We’ll be back on TV the third week of January with all-new shows,” Holly told me. “They pushed up the air dates because we did so well with the first season, so we’re scrambling with all the shooting. We filmed my birthday party, so you’ll see Jack on one of the first new episodes.”

I asked Holly about their age difference, as at 22, he’s much younger. “I don’t think it has anything to do with age. I’ve had two romances since moving to Las Vegas. One was with somebody 12 years older than me, and the other was the same age, and neither worked out. I know people still think of me as one of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends, and he of course was much older than me, but that was a whole different lifestyle and a different kind of dating.

“It’ll be another couple of years before I start thinking seriously about marriage and children. I’ve still got a lot career-wise that I want to achieve, so for now with Jack, it’s just a case of having fun together and not thinking about the future.”

Credit: Las Vegas Weekly