Free Defiance by Stephanie Tyler Page A

and yeah, that’s the way it’d been for him for his entire life. And maybe if he was here for anyone but Tru, he’d make a detour, fuck one of them on the couch or against the door or in any other place that would keep his 8 Ball patch from growing stale.
    Truth was, he didn’t like any of these women enough to be with them in private. Public sex was easier—he didn’t have to deal with anything but coming and the women were all too happy to provide the show.
    Causing a scene afterward in front of a crowd wasn’t cool—and these woman all wanted to pretend they were cool.
    But Tru was cool and she didn’t do shit like public fucking. First of all, Silas would kill her and secondly, the grapevine kept jawin’ about how lately, Tru got her rocks off by making Silas jealous, not by actually doing anything more than flirting and being where she wasn’t supposed to be. Like right now.
    She was standing in the kitchen, holding a beer he’d bet she’d been nursing most of the night. She was surrounded by guys, and she was dressed in jeans that hugged her ass and a low V-neck shirt that slid temptingly off one shoulder, revealing a thin, pink bra strap.
    The room went temporarily silent when he entered. Tru didn’t. “Hey, Caspar.”
    He ignored that, moved closer to her and guided her from the group with a hand on her biceps. “You shouldn’t be here.”
    She looked beautiful. Somehow still goddamned innocent, which was rare as fuck around here.
    Tru was the daughter Trixie’d never had, and because of that, Lance had a strict hands-off policy that even applied to his own son. Tru was promised to Silas, practically from the second she’d been born. It was all Caspar’d heard about since he came to Defiance, and he hadn’t given a shit, because he wasn’t there to goddamned date.
    But holy hell, was Tru different. Everyone knew it, especially the other Defiance women, which made all of them either kiss her ass or be especially hard on her.
    She was watching him, a small smile playing on her lips. “I didn’t know you were back home.”
    “Here to clean up this mess and get you home.”
    She tossed her hair back over her shoulder. “Silas brought me here and then he left me.”
    “Silas sent me to collect you.”
    “He can do his own dirty work.” She pulled out of his grasp for a second before he had an arm wrapped around her waist, was picking her up and carrying her through the party. She struggled. Bit him. But no one stopped him. No one from the right side of the tracks would dare to and no one from the MC would think to. This was a scene from daily life for a woman in the MC. She listened to the men in her life, did what they said or else she paid the price.
    It had been drizzling when he’d come into the party and now, it was a full-blown soaking rain, which made it more difficult to hold on to Tru while she squirmed. Finally, he got the truck’s door open and her inside.
    “I’m in, okay,” she told him, slammed her own door and he got in and drove away from the house.
    “Towel’s in the back.”
    She ignored him, brushed some water from her face with her palm. He reached back and handed her one.
    She threw it into the back. “Si and I fight a lot.”
    “Hearin’ that. Hearin’ other shit too.”
    “That I’m having a good time?”
    “Think partying with these guys is a good time?”
    “You used to.”
    “You heard wrong. But babe, I’m not you.”
    “The only reason you’ve got a problem with it is because I’m a woman.”
    He snorted. “Woman? Sweetheart, you’re a little girl tryin’ to prove you’re exactly what you’re not.”
    She stared out the window as the truck rumbled along the back roads. “You have no idea who I am.”
    “What the fuck you want, Tru?” he demanded of her. “You want to be some high school whore?”
    “I’m not like that.”
    “Yeah, okay. Not yet. But keep telling yourself that when you go to those parties and act like that.”
    “I was