Destiny Rose Young || A Paul Lahote Love Story

Chapter 32

“Destiny,” Paul said, breaking the perfect silence. The sky was almost completely black now, so several stars shined brightly in the sky.

“Hmm,” I responded, still staring up at the stars. The stars had always mesmerized me. I'm not entirely sure why, but a lot of it has to do with the stories about our futures and pasts being written in the stars. For some reason, I felt like if I sat there and stared long enough, the answers would reveal themselves.

“So, I know you're only like seventeen, but I love you. Even though it started out as the imprint bond, I've grown to love you so, so much. To prove that to you, I wanted to give you this,” Paul said, sliding a ring on to my right ring finger.

I turned to look at him in shock. I absolutely love Paul, but I wasn't expecting him to give me a ring just yet.

“What?” I asked, squinting to see the slim wooden ring in the dark lighting surrounding us.

“Destiny Rose, I love you so much. Please accept this promise ring as a symbol of that love, and as a promise to love you forever and to marry you one day,” Paul said.

“I love you too Paul. Of course I'll accept your promise ring,” I said.

I leaned up to press our lips together and he immediately deepened the kiss with one of his hands on the back of my neck and the other on my lower back. My hands found their way onto his cropped hair that was short enough I couldn't grip it. He pulled me closer trying to deepen the kiss even more. We kissed for a few more seconds before separating just enough to breath. I leaned my forehead against his and smiled at him, our lips still close enough that we were breathing the same air.

“I love you beautiful,” he said. My cheeks flushed darker at the compliment, if that was even possible. My eyes were closed, but I could feel his intense gaze on me.

“I love you too,” I said, finally separating from him enough to open my eyes and actually look at him. This close to his face, even in the dark, I could see the small worry lines crossing his face. I hated that the stress of the pack, and even worse, the stress of me, was getting to him. I could see the faint blue color of the circles under his eyes from a lack of sleep. I could see every hair in his perfect eyebrows and every eyelash on his eyes.

“Destiny, what're you looking at?” Paul asked, interrupting my thoughts.

“You're so incredibly handsome,” I answered, lifting my hand up to his cheek gently.

“And you're amazingly beautiful,” he said, pecking my lips again quickly. “But I promised your sister I'd have you home at a decent hour.”

“Um, Paul, will you start staying with me again?” I asked softly, scared of him rejecting me.

“I'd love nothing more,” he said. We kissed one more time before we got into the cab of the truck and headed back to the house.