Paradise Child Book 3 (Imprisoned in my Heart trilogy...Larry)

Chapter 1

Louis placed the last cardboard box on the floor and looked around, wondering whether he’d actually be able to find away to get past all of them. He and Harry had been so focused on removing the boxes from the van that they’d never really thought about whether or not it was sensible to just dump them randomly in the hall. Turned out that it wasn’t, because it wasn’t the largest hall he’d ever seen. Still, it was theirs, and that was enough for Louis.

Now that the call had come through saying that Derek was safely back under lock and key, Louis felt far more comfortable with their home – especially as Kylie had been so pleased by the news that he’d forgotten to be huffy about Harry’s disobedience and had sent ahead a couple of provisions in the form of alcohol, biscuits and a doormat all wrapped up in brown paper which they’d found on the doorstep. Louis wasn’t sure how the alcohol would come in handy, but the doormat would definitely give a homely feel to their cottage. A cottage was the only way to describe it; it was too small to be a house and was the typical cottage cliché; some kind of trellis over the doorway in a sort of archway with an ivy-type plant creeping around it and dangling in loose green tendrils over the toffee-coloured wooden door, a doorknocker instead of a doorbell, and the roof wasn’t thatched, but it was some kind of imitation of it. The whole building was ever so slightly crooked, leaning a little to the left, but that just gave it character. The windows were ‘leaded’ with a criss-cross pattern, so it looked like each window was made up of glass diamond shapes all fitted together like a jigsaw. It had an overgrown, tangled garden and no one had attended to it or pulled any weeds for a substantial amount of time, but Louis didn’t care much about that.

Basically, it was like a cottage straight out of a fairy tale; it would have been the spitting image of the seven dwarves’ house from Daisy and Phoebe’s book of fairy stories if it hadn’t been for the satellite dish that someone had installed on the roof. Louis’ mouth quirked upwards with amusement when he thought about it: they could get Sky – Harry would be happy.

Speak of the devil: Harry came wandering aimlessly through the front door. He had his old grey beanie jammed down over his curls, keeping them under control as when he’d woken up surrounded by the aftermath of last night’s party, he’d declared his hair impossible for the day. Louis had no objections; Harry looked bloody adorable in a beanie. Along with his beanie, he was wearing one of Louis’ ugliest jumpers, the kind that Louis only had so that he could assault people’s eyes when he didn’t like them, and skinny jeans so sinfully tight that Louis wasn’t sure whether to be turned on or amused; it must have felt like they were an extra skin layer and he didn’t envy Harry for having to peel them off later. Excited to be moving in, Harry’s eyes were bright and sparkled a devastating green as he walked forwards with his hands shoved into his pockets (as far as they would go, anyway; the pockets of the jeans were as tight as the rest of them). He had a spot on his chin, and Louis found himself fixated on it; there was something ridiculously sexy about Harry with spots that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Grinning, Harry turned his head and opened his mouth to make a comment – and then, unexpectedly, his left foot encountered the box that Louis had just put down and he tripped. Luckily, Louis was used to Harry being less than coordinated, and he reached out and snagged the back of Harry’s shirt, hauling him upwards before he could fall. Shaking his head fondly, he slung an arm around Harry’s shoulders and tilted his head sideways to brush his hair against Harry’s cheek; he had to stand on his tiptoes slightly so he could reach to do it. Beside him, he felt Harry’s smile widen.

“This is us,” Louis said cheerfully.

“Yup,” Harry agreed.

The two of them looked around, admiring the hallway. The whole house was just like it had been in the leaflet, except without all of the furnishings. It was quiet and small, on the very outskirts of Brighton away from all of the busyness and the traffic and pollution, and laughing kids on skateboards. It truly was tucked away from everything; their own little paradise. Or at least, it would be, once they’d sorted everything out. Already Louis could see where their possessions would fit, although he was most worried about the fact that although he could see upstairs and there was a reasonably unobstructed view into the master bedroom, there didn’t appear to be a bed. Which was somewhat of a problem, seeing as they didn’t have one.