A/N: First Elite fic! This takes place immediately after the fundraising event (ep 2x7). Shipping this pair is, I know, taboo and seemingly skeevy, but I really only love this pair because of the actors' chemistry - they're so good! So with that in mind, I'm writing this fic and making some changes to the original plot so it's not so weird… that's all I'll say without giving too much away. Give this story a try, and I hope you enjoy!

Love And Wealth

Chapter 1

Speechless

Lucrecia's POV

It was a strange sensation, finally telling the truth.

Telling the truth about Cayetana.

Exposing my disingenuous friendship with Carla.

Revealing the fake relationship between Guzman and me to all of high society.

And divulging perhaps the biggest lie of all, that I wasn't the perfect socialite everyone made me out to be.

No, the speech I had just given, revealing everyone's true colors - including my own - hammered the nail in the coffin: I was no one's angel. And I was happy to finally relinquish the pristine image the elite had of me.

I felt everyone's gaze as I stepped down from the stage and shoved through the crowd towards the exit. Fighting back bittersweet tears, I headed down the steps towards the valet, my teal fur luxuriously draped down my bare back, slightly hitting the floor. However, I didn't have time to worry about the expensive coat dragging - there was only one place I wanted to be... and only one person I wanted to see.

He was someone who had seen my light and basked in it lovingly... someone who had seen my dark and didn't run away. I could be perfectly imperfect in his presence, and after fully exposing parts of me I rarely showed even myself, I needed his undiscriminating essence to take me in. Needed him to envelope me in the only unconditional love I had felt in my life.

My driver jumped out of the car as soon as he saw me hit the bottom step. I chanced a glance above me at the venue to see partygoers peering down and whispering amongst themselves. I was the talk of the town once again, but this time for the wrong reasons - and for once I was proud to hold the title.

As we headed towards my home, I prepared another martini. It was my fourth - maybe fifth? - and while I was beginning to feel the liquor's influence, I simultaneously felt a clarity like never before.

All at once, I knew what and who I wanted.

And I was on a mission to go get it.

It felt like mere seconds passed between taking that first sip of my cocktail and being outside of his door. I raised my hand to knock before letting it fall by my side. Hesitation set in. This was wrong - absolutely disgusting. Sure, our world of grotesque capitalism and limitless wealth meant we experienced the kind of life 99 percent of the world couldn't begin to fathom... but even this was too much. Straight out of the imagination of V.C. Andrews was our twisted relationship - but the characters in her novels were abandoned and abused with no one but each other to turn to. He and I had everything we could ever want!

But that was another lie, wasn't it? Because, even with all the wealth in the world, Valerio and I only had each other. In a world full of riches and adulators willing to do whatever you say for access to your power, we couldn't trust anyone - because everyone around us had conditions, even our own narcissistic parents! We only held their love if we were who they said we had to be. And I desperately craved love. It's why I was Daddy's princess. It's why I had to be the best in school. It's why I pathetically clung to Guzman for so long.

I needed love - and would morph into whoever I needed to be to acquire it.

And yet, at every turn, it was denied to me, either through betrayal or rejection.

I learned very early that there was no space for me to be my authentic self if I wanted true love.

Until I met Valerio.

I was 15 when we first met. He was so self-assured, so carefree, and gave less than a fuck what anyone thought about him. Because Valerio valued himself. It was a lesson I still hadn't learned - but it was one I wanted to explore now with his guidance.

There was no backing down. Five - or six? - martinis had eroded enough inhibition for me to act on my impulse and go for what I wanted.

And I wanted Valerio.

I opened the door and there he was. Sitting in bed, scrolling through his phone. Though he sat up straighter upon my entry, the expression on his face barely shifted, like he knew I was coming. Or rather, like he knew what my presence in his doorway really meant. Typically, I'd be annoyed that anyone might think me to be predictable, might think to know me at all... but he was different. The idea that he knew my every move, my every thought, that he knew me better than perhaps I knew myself, made me feel good... made me feel like I wasn't a facade occupying a body that no longer felt like my own. With him, I wasn't invisible. I was truly seen.

I sat in front of him, speechless. My throat tightened as I watched him watch me. His eyes darkened, intensified when our gazes met. He came closer and I did the same, but we still didn't touch. There was no going back, not now that our eyes were locked like this. I couldn't look away, and everything I had felt for years that I swallowed time and time again was there plainly on my face and radiating from my body. Words weren't necessary. For the first time in my life, I wasn't lying to myself. I was being honest and transparent - for him. For us.

With tears welling in my eyes, I leaned forward and caressed his face in my hands. The touch sent chills from the tips of my fingers down into the rest of my body. I brought his face to mine, bringing our lips together at last. And in that instant, our worlds merged and changed forever.

The kiss was intense, filled with the undertones of the insatiable lust I refused to engage. Every uncontrolled desire we hid was now on the surface, unleashed in that kiss. His hands immediately enveloped me the way I knew they would and pulled me closer and closer. Even with our bodies molded into each other, he pulled me to him ever tighter. It was as if he was famished for me... like he had been yearning all of me the way I desperately yearned for all of him. And finally, we had it. We had each other.

We'd been resisting or denying these feelings for so long, they now emerged from us like a loose cannonball - and there was no stopping it. We were full speed ahead with no destination in mind. And in that moment, it didn't matter. We had each other, and that's all we needed.

The tears I attempted to hold back fell alongside any remnant of resistance I once had.

I couldn't tell if the tears stemmed from joy or sorrow. Because even though the love emanating from our bodies was undeniably real and intense and voracious, so too was the truth we didn't want to speak: we were siblings, and this love would always be forbidden.

A/N: And that's Chapter 1! The plot will thicken quite a bit soon