Monday morning the company Sebastian had hired came in with long folding tables. Within 30 minutes, they had a crew show up to load the bedroom suite of Queen Anne style furniture, plus the lamps onto a truck. Sebastian had arranged a trade with another family using the service. The Art Deco furniture he had traded for arrived about 45 minutes later. The movers carried the pieces into the bedroom and left with the mattresses and box springs to be taken to be donated.
By 11:00, the clothes had been sorted and all of the items not being kept had been removed in moving boxes designed for hanging clothes and some regular boxes. Sebastian had chosen seven of his dad's suits to keep citing that he had no idea how he could possibly ever need more than seven. Kurt convinced him to keep the tux as well. He only kept ten of the solid button-up dress shirts after Kurt convinced him that he could put darts in them to make them fit better. They moved the clothes to the study closet to keep them out of the way of the contractor the next day.
Sebastian had them box up all of his dad's law books to donate to the firm where his dad had still worked part-time while he was the State's Attorney. He kept all of his mother's French novels, the books she had from college and work, and her cookbooks. He also kept their collection of coffee table books about different countries.
Sebastian didn't want to go alone to the office to go through the boxes, so Kurt went with him. Once they were inside, they sat down with the counselor at the table and the process began. Kurt sat and held his hand as they went through the keepsakes, jewelry, and things like photos that had been in the room.
The process was very organized, which helped immensely. Doing it outside the house made the process have a finite space and time to accomplish the task in. Once he had finished, Kurt put the boxes with everything Sebastian had decided to keep in the back of the CRV. They stopped at The Container Store to buy some archival safe storage boxes for the photos and the other small boxes they needed for the keepsakes, as well as some drawer organizers for their stuff. Sebastian bought two larger stacking storage boxes to put all of the other smaller boxes in.
They made it home right as Amaline had to leave at 2:30. The girls were asleep. Kurt made the two of them a light lunch while Sebastian used the quiet time to actually move the items from the cardboard boxes and into the storage containers, which he put in the study closet as well. They sat down to eat after Sebastian finished.
"It seems like so little to be left of the lives of such amazing people."
"You told me that they valued experiences and living their lives over collecting stuff, so it's not really all that surprising that there's so little in the way of possessions."
"That's true, but just feels weird. I'm actually glad that we left the house to go through everything somewhere else. It seemed weird when they explained it, but I think it helped. You being there and the counselor helped too. Thank you."
"You're welcome. The whole process reminded me of a book I read by Marie Kondo."
"Actually, it is. I had never read the book, but the company's Facebook page had a lot of great reviews about how much they had helped, so I just went with it knowing that I just needed help. I didn't know how or where to donate stuff or who to contact to auction stuff off or sell it. And I really like their service where people can exchange furniture. My mom liked the Queen Anne furniture, but it's not really my style and the suite wasn't an heirloom from 150 years ago or something. I really like the Art Deco suite. Once the contractor paints, we can decide how to arrange the furniture. I wanted the room to feel like our space, not like we were moving into someone else's room."
They finished eating in silence. They got up to put their dishes in the dishwasher when they were done.
Kurt wrapped his arms around Sebastian and held him close. "After last night, I may be addicted to your snuggles."
Sebastian wrapped his arms around Kurt's waist. "I had never really considered myself snuggle material, but I'm pleased to hear that you feel differently. I think I may have come down with the same malady." He kissed Kurt. "So, when the girls wake up, are we going to head out to see if we can find any of the lights you mentioned putting up? And the garland and other stuff?"
"Sure."
"Once I've talked to the contractor tomorrow morning, we can go out and pick out a mattress and set up the delivery for Wednesday."
"You've clearly got this all under control, and I'll do whatever you have planned that you want me to do with you. And if there are things you want to do by yourself, you can do that too."
"There's not a thing that I want to do alone." He kissed Kurt. He heard babbling. "That's our cue."
"I like this idea better in the long run," Kurt said as they stood back looking at the lights in the kitchen. He stepped back and leaned into Sebastian's chest.
Sebastian smiled and wrapped his arms around Kurt. "I liked your other idea too. Maybe we can do that next year since they were sold out already. This looks good with the LED rope lights around the tops of the cabinets fastened to the backs. We can keep them up all year round since they can't even be seen. It's like a permanent whole-room nightlight. I'm going to turn the lights off so they can see them." He flipped the dining room light off.
Rose started clapping each time when Kurt made the lights change color and she squealed when he made them flash random colors. Aliza kicked her feet in excitement.
"Well, we have a winner." Kurt turned them back to slowly fade from one color to another. He left the lights off to let the girls watch them.
They put them in the playard and turned on some Christmas music before they went to work hanging the garland along the tops of the windows in the living room.
"I have a box of ornaments in the garage. You can grab some of yours when we pick your stuff up. We can hang them up Friday. We'll just put the bows on the ends for now."
After they got the bows in place, Kurt pulled the battery-operated pillar candles out of their box.
"Are you sure those are going to be okay? I know they're not what you had described."
"They're fine. They'll still light up the windows and they're a lot more practical since they use AA batteries. Those cell batteries in the tapered candles are not easy to change and I didn't want cords along the floor. Plus, we can use the timer and all of these run on the same remote. And if one of the girls manages to grab one some how, these aren't easily broken and they can't stick them in their mouths."
"All good points." Sebastian pulled out the pack of rechargeable batteries and began installing them in the candles. He tried each one to make sure it worked.
Once he had the batteries in all of them, they spread them out on the four windowsills in the room. There were four more. They kept back two to put in their bedroom windows once the room was ready to use. They put one in the playroom window that faced the wrap-around porch and one in the window above the sink, which also faced the porch.
"I'll warm up dinner if you want to get their formula ready while you clean up the packaging."
It took a little more focus with the low lighting, but about ten minutes later, they sat down together. Kurt turned the dining room light back on and fed Rose the baby food broccoli that she wasn't fond of.
Kurt said, "She'll like it better once we add a tiny bit of butter or garlic and salt. It's just really bland like this."
"I can't say what I think of how it tastes. She's listening."
Kurt chuckled. "Exactly." Kurt's phone pinged with a text. "Sorry, I'm just going to check to see if it's my dad." He looked and it was. He texted him back and put his phone back in his pocket. "I told him that I'd call him in ten minutes."
After they finished eating, Sebastian offered to clean up so that Kurt could call Burt.
"Hey, Dad."
"Hey. I talked to Carole."
"Okay."
"Since Christmas is in the middle of the week this year, her family has decided on the weekend before so more people can come. They're getting together Friday evening through Sunday night. I wanted to see if we could come for lunch on that Monday and stay for a little while. We could stop on our way back home from Zanesville."
"I think that would be fine, but I'll text you after I talk to Sebastian."
"I need some guidance for Christmas gifts."
"Well, if you're trying to be helpful, diapers are always a good choice."
"For you, Kurt. Not for Aliza."
"I'm not expecting anything, Dad. I'm an adult. I don't need anything beyond the necessities I buy each week – groceries, diapers, and gasoline. Buying me something expensive that I don't need makes no sense."
"Alright. I'll let you go. Let me know about Monday."
"Will do."
When Kurt went back out into the dining room, he found both girls in the playard. Sebastian was almost finished washing the dishes.
"You can go ahead and shower first," Sebastian said.
"Okay. My dad wants to know if they can come Monday for lunch. You can think about it while I shower."
Sebastian answered him when Kurt came out of the bathroom. "Monday's fine. I'm going to shower now."
Kurt nodded and went his room. He texted Burt to let him know. His room looked so strange with just the mattress on the floor. The desk had been moved out to the garage to be refinished along with Sebastian's. After he left his laundry in his hamper, he went back into the dining room to watch the girls while Sebastian showered.
After they did their evening routine of dancing, singing, and reading books, they put the girls to bed. When they went back in the living room, Sebastian picked his mom's iPad up off the table as they walked past. After they sat down, Sebastian brought it up.
"I reset it to the factory settings. It's an iPad 4. It has 128gb storage. She got it a little over a year ago. I know you don't have one. I'd like you to have it. All you have to do is put in your Apple ID and it will be yours."
"Are you sure? You could keep it for yourself if it's newer than yours."
"I actually bought an iPad Air when they came in November because mine was the first model and the iOS couldn't be updated anymore. I kept it for the girls to use to draw on or whatever we can find for them that's age appropriate that can still work on the older operating system."
"You're sure it won't bother you to see me use it?"
"I'm sure. It's just a piece of technology. I don't have any sentimental attachment to the device itself. I uploaded everything that was important to iCloud and sent anything that I couldn't upload to myself before I reset it."
"Thank you. I got used to having one when I worked at Vogue, but I had to give it back when the internship was over."
"I was going to see if you wanted to watch a movie, but I'm actually really wiped out, so I may fall asleep."
"That's okay. You can put in whatever relaxes you or you can play some music. I'll put in my ID and get this updated to the newest iOS and install the apps I use on my phone. We'll snuggle and relax."
After the last night feeding, the two of them went into Kurt's room and lay down on the mattress facing each other.
"I've never slept in the same bed with anyone like this," Kurt said. "My apologies in advance if I talk in my sleep or kick you."
"I haven't either. It's a risk I'm willing to take." He scooted forward and kissed Kurt before he turned on his side facing away from Kurt. "Scoot closer and snuggle me. I want to try out being the little spoon."
Kurt turned on his side and scooted up behind Sebastian. After a couple of minutes of rearranging, they both got comfortable. Kurt kissed the back of Sebastian's neck. He had his arm under Sebastian's, draped across his chest. Sebastian brought Kurt's hand up to his lips and kissed his knuckles.
"Thank you for staying with me today."
"I'm glad having me there made it easier. I know how hard going through all of Finn's stuff was for Carole. She insisted on doing it right away. I'm not sure whether that was a good or bad choice. Maybe there's no better choice because it's always terrible to do, no matter when it's done."
"For me, this was the right time. It's been six months. I can't really explain, but I'm okay. I miss them a lot. Of course there are things I wish I had done and things I wish I hadn't. But honestly, they never knew about the things I did that I wish I hadn't. Both of them pursued careers they liked. They bought this house. They traveled. They enjoyed the cultural places here as well. They had me, which they wanted. They wanted more kids. I read through a few pages of what turned out to be my mom's most recent journal when I was looking through the books. My parents tried to have more kids for years and never did. They had given up. And then after all those years of assuming she'd never have another child, she had Rose. She was thrilled. That's what the entry was about – just how excited she was to be getting the chance to be Rose's mom. She wrote the entry a few days before the accident. I just want to be a good parent to her like my parents would have been."
"You are. You're really good with her and Aliza too. They both love you. They may be babies, but you can see it in their eyes. They both just light up when they see you." Kurt nuzzled in tighter. "Okay?"
"Yes." He sighed and relaxed in Kurt's embrace. "I think I quite like being the little spoon."
Kurt kissed Sebastian's shoulder. "I love you, Bas."
"Bas?"
"Do you hate it?"
"No, actually I like it. Other people have called me Seb, which is okay, but no one's called me Bas before." He kissed Kurt's knuckles again. "I love you too."
The next morning, they moved Sebastian's drawing table and dresser to the middle of his room, so it would be easier to paint. They moved his books out as well, putting his schoolbooks in the study and his other books in their bedroom. The contractor and the small crew arrived at 8:30 to get started. Two of the crew went out to the garage and began working on refinishing the desks and constructing the Murphy bed console. The other two began to prep the playroom, the playroom closet, the master bedroom, bath, and closet to be painted. The contractor went around with Sebastian to make sure that she had everything on her list that Sebastian wanted done.
They left the girls with Amaline in their room with the small heater from the garage with the window open just slightly and a towel rolled in front of the door along to block any minor fumes from the low VOC paint Sebastian had chosen for the walls.
They left and went to their favorite bagel shop. Kurt ordered his favorite asiago bagel with jalapeño cream cheese, but this time Sebastian ventured out and tried the apple cinnamon bagel with the honey cinnamon cream cheese. They left the bagel shop hand in hand, smiling and laughing. They went to TJ Maxx, Macy's, Kohl's, and a couple of vintage second-hand shops before they made up their mind about the bedding, made their purchases, and headed home.
They made it home just after the girls had woken up. Amaline had gotten them ready to go out. Kurt packed them both in his car while Sebastian grabbed their stuff and made bottles for them since Amaline hadn't come out to do it while they were gone. They let Amaline leave early and headed out to pay Grandma and Grandpa a surprise visit for the afternoon, returning not long before the crew was heading out for the day.
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The contractor and crew came back Wednesday and finished up their work and were gone by noon. Kurt and Sebastian arranged the bedroom furniture and moved all of their clothes into the master closet and the dresser.
By late Wednesday afternoon when the new queen-sized bed was delivered, they had aired the master bedroom out for two days. They had washed and dried the new bedding, and they were ready to put the mattress and box springs on the bed frame. They arranged the furniture was well.
"Why didn't you want to put any of the furniture on this wall?" Kurt asked, standing by the wall that ran perpendicular to the built-in shelving.
"Because I'm getting a love seat to put there. I just thought it would be nice to not always have to sit on the bed to read. If we have Amaline take the girls into the playroom or their bedroom after breakfast for a bit, we can come in here, close the door, and they'll never know we're here. I'm not trying to hide from them, but you know that when they see us, they think we're going to play with them. Sometimes we might want need time to ourselves in the mornings."
"I get it." He looked around the room. "Well, what do you think?"
"I like it a lot. What about you?"
"I think it looks really nice. You did a good job on the color and I really do like the Art Deco furniture. The mostly black and green geometric patterned Art Deco-inspired comforter looks really good with the walls. I wasn't sure until I saw it in person. And to be honest, I love the vanity. We can take one of the pillow shams out with us and I can get some fabric to reupholster the vanity bench. We can use it as an ottoman too with the love seat you're getting. Shall we try the bed out?"
"Definitely." Sebastian lay down on the bed and slid his arm out to the center for Kurt to lie facing him. As soon as he did, Sebastian wrapped his arms around Kurt's back and ran his hand along his back gently. He kissed Kurt softly. "It seems pretty snuggly."
"Mmm hmm." He scooted closer and wrapped his leg over the top of Sebastian's to get closer. He ran his fingers along Sebastian's jaw. "You have gorgeous eyes."
"Yours are different than any I've seen. They change color. I tried to figure out what color they were without staring at you like a maniac, but I gave up when I realized they change colors. I've seen them blue, blue green, and blue gray for sure."
"I don't mind you staring. It's actually really nice. So many people have actively ignored me that having someone want to look at me feels nice."
"Well, then, I'll stop making myself refrain from looking."
Kurt kissed him and pressed in, moving them from the gentle kisses to making out. When they paused to catch their breath, Kurt said, "You can look all you want, but touching is allowed too." He moved to kiss along Sebastian's jaw. "Thank you for working so hard to make a nice space just for us. It's perfect. It's light and cheery and it's funky and fun."
"I'm glad you like it. We'll go get all of your stuff Friday when your parents are gone. We should be able to get it all boxed up, bring it back, and get it put away before Amaline leaves. We can put Rose in her spinny seat and Aliza in her reclining bouncer seat and they can watch us decorate after their nap."
"Sounds like a good plan, but I liked the one about us snuggling. I was envisioning more kissing and less planning." He propped up slightly and began to lick Sebastian's ear and kissed down his neck. "Please tell me what you do and don't like."
Sebastian moved just slightly giving Kurt more access to his neck. Kurt took the hint and placed slightly open-mouthed kisses down Sebastian's neck. He ran his hand through the back of Sebastian's hair. He kissed his way back up Sebastian's neck until he reached his ear. "I love you." He kissed along his jaw and back to his lips.
Sebastian slipped his hand behind Kurt's neck and drew him closer, while licking at Kurt's lower lip and kissing him passionately. When he had to stop to catch his breath, he kissed along the underside of Kurt's jaw and said, "What I like is being with you. Kissing you. Holding you. Snuggling with you. Cooking with you. Everything with you. All of you."
Eventually, the sounds of their girls in the baby monitor caused them to break apart. They kissed once more gently and went to the girls' room.
They put the girls in the playard after they changed them. Kurt grabbed the bed linens from the laundry room and met Sebastian in their new office.
"So, the narrow cabinet and drawers to the left of the bed are going to be where we put those. We'll need to roll the comforter though to make it fit in the cabinet. The other drawers will be for guests to put their folded clothes. And I figured you could put bolts of fabric in the top section and whatever other supplies you need that you don't want to just sit out in the open on the other shelves in the cabinet."
Kurt smiled and nodded. He refolded the sheets and the blanket to make them fit in the three drawers. Sebastian stood the pillows on the top shelf in the upper part of the cabinet. They worked together to fold and roll the comforter. They put it inside, but within a minute, it had pushed the cabinet door open.
"I can sew some ties to it like a sleeping bag has to keep it from unrolling inside the cabinet. Or I can fasten some strapping with a clasp to the inside facing of the cabinet to keep the comforter from pushing the door open."
"Both ideas are good. You can do one of them later. I'll just put it in the closet for now."
"I like the way you had our desks redone. There's a lot of white in this room with the trim, the bookshelves, the wood blinds, and the Murphy bed console being white. Having the tops of our desks and our chairs re-stained a nice warm walnut color to match each other and the dark walnut frames on the paintings and painting the lower portion of our desks white creates a unified look to the room. And those paintings look really good in here on the pale cornflower blue walls."
"They're really pretty, but they didn't go with the master suite anymore, so I'm glad they look good in here. I was planning to go to Ikea and Target tomorrow morning and get some new lamps and lighting. You said you're taking a class that involves sewing and this room doesn't get as much light as my old one. I'm going to need better lighting in here to draw and so will you. Make a list of anything you think we need like storage baskets for the girls' new playroom or whatever. Let's go in there and move my dresser and all of the Legos into the closet now that the walls are dry."
After they had finished that and they had rearranged all of the girls' stuff, they picked them up from the playard and took them into their new playroom. Sebastian hosted their tour.
"And over here are all of your books and toys. I know you can't reach them now, but that's because you need help playing with them right now. Once you get bigger, we'll put them down where you can reach them whenever you want. And the bouncy spinny seat is in here. And the walls are a pretty pale aqua now. Daddy has a pretty valance he can put up in here and we're going to get a love seat in here so Amaline can sit and watch you two play and she can hold you and read books to you."
Rose patted Sebastian on the chest.
"Yes, of course, and Papa can read books to you too."
She smiled. "Pa-pa. Pa-pa." She turned her cheek to him so he would kiss her.
"Mwuah."
She giggled and turned her other cheek so he would do it again.
"Mwuah."
Kurt said, "I think some soft baskets might be nice for now. That way Amaline could just sit a basket full of toys down and they won't get hurt if they fall over onto them or crawl into them. I have the pillows that I made still too. We can put them on whatever love seat we get. Maybe we can look at their art prints and put a poster up in here or we could buy a few canvases and paint them ourselves. You can draw amazing house designs and I can design clothes. Surely between the two of us we can paint a whale or some seahorses or fish or something."
"Excellent idea. We'll get whatever we need while we're out tomorrow."
"So, let's continue your tour." He left and went across the hall to their study. "Now, this room is where Papa and Daddy will do their work. It's our study. See, my desks are in here now with Daddy's desk." He walked over to the console and touched it. "We put the bed in here." He walked around the room letting Rose look.
Kurt stood near the door holding Aliza, who wasn't as into the tour as Rose, but was watching Sebastian and listening to him talk. When Sebastian had made it all the way around the room, he leaned towards Kurt and kissed him gently.
He went passed the bathroom towards the master suite and opened the door. "And in here, is Papa and Daddy's new room. Here on the right, we have our own bathroom." He stepped inside to let her see. He stepped back out into the hall and into their closet. "And in here we have our closet." He left and walked into the room. "And in here we have our bed and our books. And that's the end of the tour. Are you two ready for dinner?" He tickled Rose's belly just enough to make her smile. "Let's go back in the kitchen and you two can play while we make it."
"What made you decide to have the master bath partially remodeled?" Kurt continued to simmer the chicken and keep an eye on the rice he was cooking.
Sebastian chopped vegetables as he answered, "I really only had a new counter top put in with a double sink. Now there aretwo sinks instead of one sink with a lot of countertop space. I figured that the two of us would actually end up shaving at the same time sometimes. I don't know. I just thought we could use two sinks instead of one. It's still the same tall storage cabinet next to the sink and the same cabinet underneath the sink. I just had them painted. The original dark wood just looked dated and dark. I like the white with the pale green walls. It's not a big bathroom, but it has the corner garden tub and it just felt cramped with the dark cabinets. I had the regular doors taken down on the bathroom and closet for the same reason. When they were opened into the rooms, it just made the space cramped. I liked the idea of pocket doors, but the expense and time was too much for me to seriously consider it, but the sliding hanging barn doors were a simple solution. Do you not like them?"
"Actually, I do. I've seen them in magazines, but never in person. I'm looking forward to trying out the garden tub. I've never had one. I used to enjoy taking baths occasionally until I hit my growth spurt between sophomore and junior year. Then, I couldn't really get comfortable in a tub anymore." He turned to get the carrots to add them to the stir-fry.
Sebastian winked at him. "Well, now you can have a bath any time you want. Maybe I'll even give it a try myself some time. I can't even remember the last time I took a bath."
Kurt grabbed the rest of the vegetables and tossed them in. He stepped closer to Sebastian and kissed him quickly before turning back to cook. "You did a great job with the whole project."
"I'm glad you like everything. I wanted you to feel like this is our place now."
"I do."
They got ready for bed in the master suite for the first time that evening. Kurt showered first and sat at the new vanity for the first time to go through his nighttime moisturizing routine, which he had pared down drastically since returning from New York, but it was still an important part of his daily routine that he had been glad to be able to reinstate once he had moved in with Sebastian. It helped him to wind down at the end of the evening
Sebastian came in from the bathroom just as Kurt was finishing up. He got caught up in watching Kurt.
"It's actually really relaxing. It's sort of like a face massage each evening before I go to sleep."
"I can see how that could be. People pay good money to go have facials done. There must be something quite pleasant about it or they wouldn't pay to have it done."
"I've never been to a spa to have one like that, but I bet it's relaxing. I just watched tutorials online. I used to go to the make up counters at Macy's when each company was doing miniature product giveaways. I found what I liked, and over time, I've switched brands a few times. I don't go to Macy's anymore, but it was a good start. I could give you a facial some time if you'd like."
"Sure. If nothing else, I'll know what the hype is about. Plus, you touching me would make it totally worth it." He leaned down and kissed Kurt. "Ready for bed?"
Kurt nodded. He put the last bottle he had used back in the drawer, and then walked around the bed to lie down. "I like the lamps," Kurt said, as he turned the one on his side of the bed off before he got in bed. He lay on his back and pulled the covers up. "I put my nightlight in over here behind the nightstand while you were in the bathroom. I hope it's okay, at least for a couple of nights until I reorient myself to where I'm sleeping."
"It's actually a good idea that I hadn't thought of. We were practically on the floor the past two nights, but this bed definitely sits higher off the floor than mine did."
Kurt moved closer to the middle of the bed. "I like the soft flannel sheets we got. Very cozy. If you turn over one way or the other, we can snuggle."
He rolled onto his side and kissed Kurt. "You do actually like everything, right?"
"I do. A lot. You have really good taste and I've always loved Art Deco stuff. I like a lot of the old advertisements and movie posters."
"Well, you saw that I moved the artwork that was in here to the study since it was impressionist and didn't go with this style. We can look for some artwork to hang in here."
"I bet we could find some of your favorite comic book characters from way back done in an Art Deco style on one of those poster prints websites. I have a framed Wicked poster that's not entirely Art Deco, but similar and the colors would match what we have in here. We could hang it over the love seat. It's in my closet at my parents'. I also have my small collection of Broadway and Off-Broadway playbills that was going to have framed. But you could take some of your favorite comic books and we could copy the covers of both and we could make two interesting pieces to hang somewhere in here."
"That could be a fun project to work on next week."
"Mmm hmm. We could order a couple of poster prints tomorrow and they'd be here by the end of next week."
"Good plan."
"Okay. I think I've figured out another thing we have in common."
"What's that?"
"I lie in bed thinking far too much before I manage to fall asleep."
"Yeah, me too."
Kurt scooted a little closer to Sebastian. "I have a potential solution to our overthinking."
"Do tell."
He kissed Sebastian, soft and sweet. He ran his thumb along Sebastian's cheek, moving to running his fingers through his hair. He didn't press beyond the chaste kissing, but it didn't take long for Sebastian to wrap his hand behind Kurt's neck to pull him closer.
"This is so much nicer than counting sheep," Sebastian said, as he kissed down Kurt's neck. "Great idea."
"Do you like it when I play with your hair?" He was hoping that Sebastian would say that he did because he enjoyed doing it.
"Like is definitely not a strong enough word for how I feel about it. Feel free to do it any time you want to."
"I'll keep that in mind." He relaxed as Sebastian resumed the neck kisses.