In Too Deep

TABLE OF CONTENTSCHAPTER ONECHAPTER TWOCHAPTER THREECHAPTER FOURCHAPTER FIVECHAPTER SIXCHAPTER SEVENCHAPTER EIGHTCHAPTER NINECHAPTER TENCHAPTER ELEVENCHAPTER TWELVECHAPTER THIRTEENCHAPTER FOURTEENCHAPTER FIFTEENCHAPTER SIXTEENCHAPTER SEVENTEENCHAPTER EIGHTEENCHAPTER NINETEENCHAPTER TWENTYCHAPTER TWENTY-ONECHAPTER TWENTY-TWOCHAPTER TWENTY-THREECHAPTER TWENTY-FOURCHAPTER TWENTY-FIVECHAPTER TWENTY-SIXCHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENCHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTCHAPTER TWENTY-NINECHAPTER THIRTYCHAPTER THIRTY-ONECHAPTER THIRTY-TWOCHAPTER THIRTY-THREECHAPTER THIRTY-FOURCHAPTER THIRTY-FIVECHAPTER THIRTY-SIXCHAPTER THIRTY-SEVENCHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHTCHAPTER THIRTY-NINEAn Exclusive Sneak Peek from OUT OF BOUNDS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSALSO BY KIMBERLY DERTINGABOUT THE AUTHOR PRAISE FORKIMBERLY DERTING"Falling in love has never felt so good. With the warmth of the sun, and the sand between your toes, Derting takes you on the summer you always imagined..." —Heidi McLaughlin, NY Times bestselling author of Forever My Girl (now a major motion picture)"A strong debut from a promising author." —Publishers Weekly"If you're in the mood for some psychological thrillers, evil masterminds, strong heroines and hot heroes, then I'd definitely pick up the Body Finder series." —USA Today"…fast-paced and engrossing." —VOYA"As always, this author writes a gripping tale...With another sequel set up, this intriguing series continues to provide great entertainment for suspense fans." —Kirkus Reviews"a refreshing take on paranormal romance..." —Romantic Times"More great suspense from a prolific new writer with a vibrant imagination."—Kirkus Reviews"This creative mystery has it all...the heart of a romance novel wrapped up in pages that almost crackle with the electricity of suspense." —Justine Magazine "The explicit and unsettlingly candid tone of the killer reminds one of Robert Cormier's Tenderness (Delacorte, 1997), while several twists and turns keep the pages flipping. Older readers will quickly find themselves pulled into Derting's neighborhood." —VOYA "You'll be drawn in by the love story-and kept up all night by the suspense."—Claudia Gray, New York Times bestselling author of Stargazer)"Fans will be delighted to return to Derting's fantastical and amazing world, filled with spunky, brave and lovable characters." —Romantic Times IN TOO DEEPKIMBERLYDERTING Can two people whose dreams have been cast aside find a new passion...together?No one ever expected straight-A student Lauren Taylor to make waves. But that was the old Lauren, before she went to college and became an online stripper to make ends meet. Now, Lauren is on the run with a secret and a bag of cash, fleeing landlocked Arizona for the beaches of California. Will Gabaldon was one of the hottest surfers on the circuit, but fate had something else in mind. When a surfing accident shattered his budding career, Will was forced into a life of tending bar and doing odd jobs just to survive. A swim instructor with secrets like Will is the last thing Lauren wants. A distraction like Lauren is the last thing Will needs. But soon, both discover there’s one thing more dangerous than the wave that ended Will's career: Love. All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.IN TOO DEEP. Text copyright © 2023 by Kimberly Derting. Excerpt from OUT OF BOUNDS copyright © 2023 by Kimberly Derting. All rights reserved.No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, photocopying, mechanical, or otherwise—without prior permission of the publisher and author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews. For information, address Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Inc. at 1076 Eagle Drive, Salinas, CA 93905.“In Too Deep,” originally published as Unfiltered & Undressed by TES © 2014.Cover design by Christine Cover Design For CJ—I’m grateful I was able to start this journey with you by my side. CHAPTER ONELAUREN“Fuck. Me.” I looked back and forth between the printout in my hand and the broken-down shack in front of me. It most definitely wasn’t the “quaint beachside bungalow” listed in the online ad. But I’d already signed the papers, sight unseen.Great. I’d just dropped fifteen thousand bucks on a three-month lease for a piece-of-shit shack, crowded in a row with a bunch of other piece-of-shit shacks.And was that seriously tinfoil covering the windows? Not cool.“Technically, you mean ‘fuck us,’” Emerson piped in a little too enthusiastically. I loved my best friend, especially her willingness to ditch her family for the summer and spend her entire break with me before returning to the real world, but right now her enthusiasm was making my head pound. “And there are worse things than being fucked, not that you’d know anything about that. Besides, I like it. With a little work, it’ll be adorbs.”“Okay, one, there’s nothing adorbs about it. It probably isn’t even up to code.” I eyed the window AC unit balanced precariously on a slanted two-by-four. “And two,” I complained. “Look around you, Em.” This was so not the California of my dreams—the one I’d been imagining since I was a little girl watching reruns of Baywatch. “The ad promised beachfront. As in, we would be stepping off our doorstep onto the sand. Do you see any beach?”Emerson squinted, straining dramatically to see across the single-lane blacktop where the sun was just starting to set. She shielded her eyes with her hand and then squealed, “There! If you look in just the right place, in between those houses over there, you can see it!” She clapped her hands together and bounced up and down, thrilled for a quasi-glimpse of an almost-strip of the shore.I tried to tell myself I should let some of Em’s positivity rub off on me. It shouldn’t matter where I’d be sleeping for the summer. All that mattered was that we’d finally left dry and dusty Arizona in the rearview mirror. I’d dreamed of this moment practically every single day of my childhood, when I’d submerged myself in the bubble bath, pretending I knew how to swim. Pretending I wasn’t afraid to learn how.Now I could finally put those fears behind me.“Come on,” Emerson gushed, digging through the jumble of bags crammed in the trunk and hauling out a suitcase. “Let’s put on something slutty so we can scope out the local action.”“Don’t you ever think