Chapter 35
Chapter 35
Three months later, Sabrina learned two very important things about dating Lucas Cooper.
The first was that privacy no longer existed in any recognizable form.
The second was that somehow, impossibly, he still made all the chaos feel worth surviving.
Most days, anyway.
"Why are there seventeen photographers outside my office?" Sabrina asked flatly one Thursday afternoon while climbing into the backseat of Lucas's SUV.
Lucas looked up from his phone immediately.
"Seventeen exactly?"
"I counted out of spite."
"Healthy coping mechanism."
Sabrina dropped dramatically into the seat beside him while his security team closed the door outside.
Rain streaked softly across the tinted windows while flashes still burst from the street beyond.
Three months ago, moments like this would've made her chest tighten instantly.
Now?
Now she mostly found them annoying.
Progress.
Lucas studied her carefully.
"You okay?"
There it was again.
That immediate attentiveness.
Ever since the separation, Lucas noticed everything faster now.
The small shifts in her mood.
The moments she got overwhelmed.
The way public attention still exhausted her sometimes even when she pretended otherwise.
And the strangest part was:
he never made her feel guilty for it.
Sabrina leaned back against the leather seat with a tired sigh.
"I got called manipulative by a twelve-year-old on TikTok today."
Lucas looked genuinely offended.
"Tell me her username."
She laughed immediately.
"See, that reaction concerns me."
"I'm serious."
"I know. That's why it's concerning."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
That smile still affected her nervous system unfairly.
Three months later and Lucas could still look at her a certain way and completely ruin her ability to think normally.
Honestly embarrassing.
The SUV pulled into traffic smoothly while London blurred gold and gray beyond the windows.
Lucas reached for her hand automatically.
No hesitation anymore.
No uncertainty.
Just instinct.
Sabrina intertwined their fingers easily while warmth spread quietly through her chest.
This part still surprised her sometimes.
How natural they'd become together after all the chaos.
Not perfect.
Never perfect.
But real.
The relationship no longer felt like something fragile they were terrified of naming.
It felt lived in now.
Comfortable.
Like late-night conversations and shared apartments and inside jokes nobody else understood.
Like home.
"You're staring again," Lucas murmured softly.
Sabrina blinked.
"What?"
"That emotional staring thing you do when you accidentally like me."
She narrowed her eyes immediately.
"Accidentally?"
"You're right," he corrected solemnly. "Devastatingly."
"That's worse somehow."
Lucas grinned fully then.
And there it was.
The version of him the public barely knew existed.
Soft.
Warm.
Almost unbearably human.
Sabrina still remembered the first time she realized Lucas only smiled like that around her.
It had terrified her then.
Now it just made her fall harder.
The car stopped at a red light moments later.
Outside, people immediately recognized the SUV.
Phones lifted toward the windows instantly.
Lucas noticed Sabrina tense slightly beside him.
Without thinking, his thumb brushed softly across her knuckles.
Grounding.
Always grounding.
"You okay?" he asked quietly again.
Sabrina looked toward the crowd outside before answering honestly.
"I think I'm getting used to it."
Lucas's expression softened immediately.
"You shouldn't have had to."
The guilt still lingered there sometimes.
Even months later.
Especially on difficult days.
After the interview, Lucas had changed in ways Sabrina still noticed constantly.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
He set boundaries now.
Canceled appearances when things became overwhelming.
Stopped allowing PR teams to control every aspect of his personal life.
Most importantly:
he stopped treating love like something dangerous to manage carefully.
And somehow that changed everything between them.
Not because life became easier.
Because Lucas finally let her stand beside him instead of shielding her from half the truth.
The internet still dissected them constantly.
Articles still appeared weekly.
Rumors still spread.
People still had opinions about their relationship despite knowing absolutely nothing real about it.
But now when things got difficult, Lucas reached for her instead of retreating.
That difference mattered more than Sabrina knew how to explain.
The SUV finally pulled beneath the underground entrance of Lucas's building.
The second they stepped out, Lucas's hand settled instinctively against the small of her back.
Protective.
Familiar.
Home.
By the time they reached the apartment upstairs, Sabrina had kicked off her shoes and stolen one of Lucas's hoodies before he even finished answering a work call.
"You're a thief," he informed her while walking into the kitchen.
"It's called emotional attachment."
"You own clothes."
"Not emotionally supportive ones."
Lucas laughed quietly under his breath before opening the fridge.
Sabrina watched him from across the kitchen while warmth settled heavily in her chest.
This.
This was the part nobody saw.
Not headlines.
Not red carpets.
Lucas half asleep making coffee at midnight.
Lucas humming absentmindedly while cooking.
Lucas pulling her against his chest every single night like his body still feared she might disappear again.
The ordinary intimacy of loving someone completely.
It still overwhelmed her sometimes.
Lucas glanced toward her while pouring coffee.
"What?"
"You're doing it again."
"What thing?"
"The staring."
"I'm judging your coffee-making abilities."
"That's not believable anymore."
Unfortunately fair.
He walked toward her a second later, handing her a mug before leaning casually against the counter beside her.
Comfortable silence settled between them.
The kind that only existed after truly knowing someone.
Sabrina looked down into her coffee before speaking quietly.
"You know what's weird?"
Lucas hummed softly.
"I used to think being with you would always feel temporary."
The words hung gently in the air between them.
Lucas's expression shifted immediately.
Softer.
More serious.
He set his own mug down carefully before turning fully toward her.
"Sabrina."
"No, let me finish."
She inhaled slowly.
"Back then everything about your life felt temporary. Relationships. Privacy. Stability." Her fingers tightened slightly around the mug. "Even happiness."
Lucas stayed silent, listening carefully.
"But now..." She looked up at him finally. "Now it feels like we actually chose this. Not because it's easy. Because we keep choosing it anyway."
Emotion flickered visibly across his face.
Lucas stepped closer slowly until he stood directly in front of her.
Then gently took the mug from her hands and set it aside.
"You were never temporary to me," he said quietly.
The words still hit her just as hard now.
Maybe harder.
Because now she fully believed them.
Lucas touched her face softly.
"I just didn't know how to love someone properly without being terrified of losing them."
Her chest tightened painfully.
Because she understood that now too.
More than she used to.
Sabrina smiled faintly.
"You're still terrified."
"Absolutely."
She laughed softly.
"So am I."
And somehow admitting it no longer felt like weakness.
Just honesty.
Lucas's forehead rested gently against hers.
Outside the massive windows behind them, London glowed beneath evening rain while the city continued moving endlessly around them.
The world hadn't changed.
Fame was still invasive.
People still watched them constantly.
Pressure still existed.
But somewhere between heartbreak and healing, they'd finally stopped asking whether love was worth surviving all of it.
Because now they already knew the answer.
Lucas kissed her softly once before murmuring against her lips:
"You know what my publicist said to me yesterday?"
"That I ruined her life?"
"Close." A smile touched his mouth. "She said we're impossible to market because people can tell when interviews are fake now."
Sabrina laughed immediately.
"That sounds like a her problem."
"It does."
Lucas kissed her again, slower this time.
And even now, months later, Sabrina still felt it everywhere.
The warmth.
The certainty.
The terrifying depth of loving someone who knew every vulnerable part of her and stayed anyway.
When they pulled apart, Lucas rested his forehead lightly against hers again.
"You busy tomorrow?" he asked casually.
Sabrina narrowed her eyes immediately.
"That tone means danger."
"Not danger."
"You sound suspiciously confident."
Lucas looked entirely too pleased with himself now.
"There's a charity gala tomorrow night."
"Oh no."
"Yes."
"I hate when your sentences start like this."
His grin widened.
"You're coming with me."
Sabrina groaned dramatically.
"Lucas."
"It'll be fun."
"That's a lie."
"Okay, maybe emotionally stressful fun."
She laughed despite herself.
And just like that, the heaviness dissolved again.
Easy.
Natural.
Lucas watched her for another second afterward before his expression softened quietly.
Still that look.
That overwhelming tenderness he never fully learned how to hide around her.
"What?" Sabrina asked softly.
"Nothing."
"That's suspicious."
"I was just thinking."
"Dangerous."
"Extremely."
His hand slid gently into hers again.
Then more quietly:
"I was thinking I almost lost this."
Emotion caught unexpectedly in Sabrina's chest.
Because she thought about that sometimes too.
How close they came to becoming almost.
Lucas looked at her carefully.
"I don't think I'll ever stop being grateful you answered the phone that night."
The sincerity in his voice nearly undid her.
Sabrina smiled softly before stepping closer again.
"Well," she whispered, "you did emotionally confess your love on live television."
Lucas groaned immediately.
"You're never letting that go, are you?"
"Absolutely not."
"Cruel."
"Devastatingly."
He laughed quietly then kissed her one more time, slow and familiar and full of everything they'd fought so hard to keep.
And outside, beyond the windows, cameras still flashed somewhere in the city.
Headlines would continue.
Rumors would continue.
The world would continue watching them.
But for the first time since this story began, neither of them was afraid of what came next.
Because this time, they weren't pretending anymore.