Dazzled: Reckless Desires - final ARC by J.K. Harper Page B

underside of her desk, causing her to growl an unimaginative curse, as her mother would call it.
    One of the Center interns poked his head in.
    "Yes?" she said, smiling as she massaged her knee.
    "Sorry, Lacey. Your appointment's here early."
    The dealer, here with the artifact he'd emailed her about. “Send him in,” she said, getting out of her chair just as he walked into her office.
    "Lacey! So good to see you again," he said, stepping forward with a smile and his outstretched hand. “It's been, what? Since you were up in the Bay Area at that history conference over the winter, right?" Mark, whose antiquities shop was in Oakland, liked to keep up with all the latest goings-on in the state's historical world.
    Lacey smiled at him. "Hi, Mark," she said, shaking his hand. Mark Edwards was a well-known dealer in the field with whom Lacey had always enjoyed working. "I can't believe it's been that long. What do you have for me?"
    Mark smiled as he slung a large brown leather satchel from his shoulder and settled it on the little side table close to the door. In his fifties or thereabouts, he'd always kind of reminded Lacey of her dad, if her father had ever been remotely interested in history.
    “First, I have something for you from the collector." Mark said. "A gift. Specifically for you, he instructed."
    That startled Lacey. "For me? I don't even know him."
    Mark shrugged as he rustled around inside his satchel for second before pulling out a small, black cloth bag. Glancing at Lacey's desk, he chuckled. Lacey followed his gaze and also laughed. Varying little cloth bags of different sizes and colors were scattered about the desk. Well, she worked and practically lived in the museum, and she was a curator. People sent her objects all the time.
    None, of course, like the beautiful cross that Sebastian had given her.
    "He's actually followed your career ever since you came to the center," Mark said. "You know how a lot of these collectors are. They don't want the general public to know about them."
    Lacey nodded, resigned to the realities of her field.
    "You mean he sometimes buys things of questionable provenance," she said in a flat tone.
    Mark shrugged. "I don't ask where everything comes from when my clients tell me about them. Although you know perfectly well," his tone sharpened a slight bit, "that I only deal on the up and up."
    Lacey nodded. Mark Edwards was highly respected in the field, based on a spotless career spanning thirty years. He was thoroughly vetted. No object that he ever dealt in, whether to sell or to buy, would be sourced off the black market. However, not all of his clients believed in the same thing. He didn't care about their personal ethics, as long as nothing that was illegal came into his possession.
    "Anyway,” Mark continued, “he told me he's appreciated you sharing details about the Californio era with me, which I then passed on to him, during this past year. It's helped him to make some good decisions for some purchases. At any rate, he said he came across this piece and immediately thought of you. Now, Lacey," and Mark looked at her carefully. "It is genuine. I've examined the papers myself. I'm certain the provenance is authentic and totally legal. However, I can't trace the chain all the way back. That's why he wants you to have it as a gift. There's no money exchanging hands in this transaction."
    "I see." Lacey paused for a long moment. Mark was trying to tell her, without stating it in bald terms, that he couldn't be certain that the piece had not at some point in its life been traded under murkier circumstances.
    Her curiosity was too much, however. Twisting her lips just slightly, she held out her hand. Gently, Mark handed over the little bag. Lacey upended it to gently shake out a small gold hairpin.
    A miniature dazzle of gold and jewels glittered at her, almost seeming to pulse in her hand with its bright energy. "Oh, it's gorgeous!" Lacey lifted her hand closer to her face