Page 48 of Grimoires & Glamoury

“What are you doing?” Charles asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Putting on a face,” I said, keeping my eyes on the mirror.

“You don’t need makeup,” he said.

“Ha!” I laughed. “Spoken like a man whose only ever had a quick peep at my face without any.”

“There’s no need—” he began.

“I enjoy wearing cosmetics,” I informed him. “Sugar, trust me. I’m doing this for me. Not for you.”

He got up to stand beside me. “Can I ask why you’re standing so close to the mirror?”

I slanted my eyes over to his. “Because I can’t get a good look at my face in the bathroom mirror. It’s too far away.” I started to step over to reach for the bag again, and to my surprise he picked it up.

“Allow me.” He held it out for me.

“Thanks,” I said and selected my blush and a brush.

He stood, watching silently as I added some contour next.

“Can you hand me the blending brush?” I asked him. “It’s big and silver.”

“Sure.” He plucked it out of the bag and passed it over. “Ah,” he said a moment later in understanding, as I blended in the contour and the blush.

It probably should have been weird, having him standing there passing me my makeup and observing, but he was so easy-going about the whole thing that it sort of tickled me.

Moving onto my eyes, I brushed on some soft taupe eye shadow and a darker stone color for the crease. After blending it, I snapped the lid closed on the palette and leaned in even closer to the mirror to add some charcoal eyeliner. Quickly I smudged it a bit, blending it with the shadow.

“Good,” I said to my reflection and then before I could ask, Charles was holding out my mascara for me.

“I assumed this was next,” he said with a smile.

“It’s good practice for you, when Chloe decides to start wearing makeup in a few years,” I told him.

He shuddered. “That’s a long way away.”

After I finished with the mascara, I selected my eyebrow pencil and moved back to the mirror once more.

“What’s that for?” he asked.

“Eyebrow pencil,” I explained. “My brows turned gray when my hair did, and if I don’t darken them up, they kind of disappear on my face.” I had finished the first brow when to my shock his hand reached over, cupped my chin and gently rotated my face toward his.

“I never realized that you darkened your eyebrows,” he said. “Seeing one done and one not...I understand what you mean. The darker brow makes your silver eyes really stand out.”

I froze. His hand was cupping my face, and we were close together in a hotel room. Alone.

For a moment we stood there not moving. He started to lean in closer. Our lips were about an inch apart when he suddenly seemed to realize where we were. Abruptly, Charles dropped his hand and stepped back.

He set the bag down on the dresser. “I’ll let you finish.”

Shaken by the almost kiss, I stayed quiet and finished my makeup. Once I was done, I unrolled the sock bun and finger combed the curls out.

“What strange magick is this?” Charles said. His genuine confusion made me smile. “Is that why your hair was in a bun?”

“It’s a sock bun,” I explained. “I roll my damp hair around the sock, leave it in overnight and it makes heatless curls in the morning.”

“Clever,” he said.