Blitz: Run Away With Me by Mila Gray (Come Back To Me)

**Run Away With Me by Mila Gray**

Oh My! Am I ever late with this post! I had completed it and just realized I forgot to publish it! Ack! I am so very sorry! Rather than go it to great detail about why I chose to feature this book, I’m just going to go straight to the feature! Enjoy! Please allow me to feature on the blog – Mila Gray and her book RUN AWAY WITH ME ….

**Mila Gray**

**BIO**

Mila Gray is the pen name for Sarah Alderson, author of Hunting Lila, Losing Lila, The Sound, Fated and Out of Control.

Originally from London she has lived in Bali for the last four years with her husband and daughter.

As well as writing young adult fiction under the name Sarah Alderson and adult fiction under the name Mila Gray, she also writes screenplays.

To find out more about Ms. Gray, please visit:

Website

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**RUN AWAY WITH ME**

Series: Come Back to Me #3
Published by: Simon Pulse
Publication date: November 28th 2017
Genres: New Adult, Romance

**BLURB**

Emerson Lowe and popular ice-hockey player Jake McCallister have been best friends since third grade but just as their friendship starts to morph into something more, a terrible event occurs that heralds the end of innocence for both of them. Within a week, Jake’s living on the other side of the country and Emerson is left alone to pick up the pieces of her life in a small town determined to paint her as a liar.

Seven years on and Emerson is still living on the beautiful Pacific West island of Bainbridge, helping her family run their outdoor adventure company. The last thing she needs is Jake turning up, bringing with him old memories and opening up old wounds. But Jake—even better looking than Emerson remembered and on the cusp of a bright sporting future—seems determined to revive their friendship no matter how much Emerson tries to push him away and soon they’re in the midst of a passionate summer romance that neither of them wants to end.

But if they’re to have any kind of future, they’re first going to need to confront the past, a past that most people want to stay buried.

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**EXCERPT**

By reading any further, you are stating that you are at least 18 years of age.

If you are under the age of 18, please exit this site.

I hear a voice behind me.

‘Need some help with that?’

I spin around.

It takes a couple of seconds for my brain to confirm that it’s actually him. That it’s actually Jake McCallister standing in front of me and not a hallucination. My heart does this fierce smash and rebound against my ribs as though it’s been violently woken from hibernation. I draw in a breath so big it feels like my lungs might explode, as if all that air is filling a vacuum and I’ll never be able to let it out again.

I hate this feeling. Hate the way the adrenaline floods my blood stream and tears sting my eyes. Hate the way my body reacts in a thousand contradictory ways at the sight of him, as though someone has plugged me into a wrong socket and fried all my synapses.

I have an impulse to throw myself at him but I’m not sure if it’s because I want to hug him or beat the living crap out of him. I drop the kayak, my hands fisting automatically at my sides.

I watch the smile on his lips fade when he notices the set of my jaw. His expression had started off wary but now I see him swallow and press his lips together, something he always does when he’s nervous.

I take note of that and at the same time notice a dozen other tiny, insignificant, monumental details about this new old Jake. I see the faded white scar on his chin—the one I gave him and the new scar cutting across his eyebrow. Then there’s his height – we were always the same height but now he’s tall. . . much taller than me. His dark brown hair is the same, though - unruly, untamed, falling in his eyes. He’s looking at me with the same mix of uncertainty that he looked at me the very last time I saw him.

I glance away, down at the sand. My whole body is shaking and I can’t seem to get it under control.

‘Em?’ I hear him say.

My head flies up before I can stop it. No one calls me that any more. His voice is deeper, mellower. The inflection though when he says my name is still just the same... and instantly something inside me starts coming undone. Jake always used to say my name like it belonged to him, and only him.

**BONUS EXCERPT**

I twist away from him but he takes my face in both his hands forcing me around to look at him. His expression is fierce, and when he speaks his voice is even fiercer. ‘Em,’ he whispers. ‘You’re the reason I came back. Yes, I’m going to leave the island again. But I swear to you, I’m never going to leave you again.’

How can he mean that? How can he even know that? That’s an impossible promise. One he can’t keep. His words are a magic spell I want to believe in – but I know better by now than to believe in fairy tales. Real life isn’t like that. The princess doesn’t get rescued from the tower. She has to stay there forever. Sometimes she gets eaten by the ogre. And why should she expect a prince to rescue her anyway – when she can’t even rescue herself?

‘Jake – ‘ I start to say, pulling away again. I can’t do this when he’s so close. I can’t think straight. I can’t find the words. I stand up, my legs filled with pins and needles, and head to the fire, needing to put space between us. I crouch down beside it, keeping my back to Jake because I can’t look at him any more. It’s too hard. I hear him though as he gets up and walks towards me, sense him come to a stop just behind me.

‘Em, I mean it,’ he says. ‘I haven’t stopped thinking about you for all these years. About us. About what might have been.’

I laugh through my nose. ‘We were thirteen, fourteen, nothing would have been Jake.’

‘You don’t know that,’ he says, his voice a whisper in my ear that sends a long shiver down my spine.

I stand up. He’s an inch from me and the pull is so great it takes everything I’ve got to not press myself up against him. I try not to but my attention falls straightaway to his lips. My stomach muscles tighten at the memory of them on mine. Goddamn it. Why did I give in and let him kiss me?  

And why must there always be this contradiction when it comes to Jake? This constant urge I have to run from him conflicting with an intense yearning to give in and draw close to him?

‘Em,’ he says, shaking his head, ‘if all that’s holding you back is the thought of me leaving then that’s not a good enough reason.’

I take a step back but there’s nowhere to go except into the fire, so I just cross my arms in front of my chest instead in an effort to keep him at bay. He stays where he is and I realize he’s challenging me. He knows exactly what his proximity is doing to me. The heat from the flames behind me is nothing compared to the heat building between the two of us. I can feel my defenses melting and he can feel it too. I know from the victorious, challenging look in his eye. He’d look like that as a kid when daring me to do something he knew he’d win at – like 100m sprints.

He always did know how to play me and the thought drives me insane. I don’t want to let him win. But it’s not a game, I remind myself. It’s not a dare. It’s my life and Jake winning doesn’t mean that I have to lose. We can both win.

‘I can’t get you out of my head,’ he continues.

I am this close to caving in but I dig in my heels.

Jake is waiting, watching me, but he finally seems to realize I’m not going to back down, that I’m resolute on this. He nods, almost to himself, his shoulders slumping and then he takes a step backwards. I take a deep breath in, feeling the distance between us as a physical ache. Another step and the ache becomes a stab to the gut – a ripping feeling in my chest as though someone has my heart in their hands and is tearing it into pieces.

 ‘I guess then,’ he says, smiling sadly at me as he reaches the door. ‘I’ll just have to settle for being friends.’ He runs his hand through his hair. ‘It’s more than I hoped for.’ A pause. ‘But it’s less than I want.’

His words knock something loose in me, jolt me into realizing that it’s less than I want too. The voice in my head screams that I can’t let him go; that I need to trust him not to hurt me again.

He’s over by the door to the tent, lifting the flap, when I grab his hand. I’m almost as surprised as him as I don’t remember having moved across the tent.

Jake turns, surprised, but in the next second I’m in his arms and we’re kissing, not tentatively this time but as if time is running out on us, as if those lost years need to be caught up on in the next five minutes.

**GIVEAWAY**

• All three of Mila Gray's books, signed
• 3x signed copies of Run Away With Me

          a Rafflecopter giveaway          

And I’m off to get a copy for myself … Sounds good to me. And I am curious as to what this life-changing event was that separated the main characters and seems to have turned them in to different people, with hints of their old selves briefly surfacing. What did you guy think? Has anyone read this series before, or this author? What can you tell me? Your feedback is always wanted.  I hope you all enjoyed your time here today. A thanks to Xpresso Book Tours for putting all of the info together. And a special thank you to Ms. Gray for allowing us to feature her book today!

As always, buy links are included in the post. If you are so inclined, purchase the book for yourself. There is no better way to support an author. I would like to thank each and every one of you for joining us today. Wishing you all a fabulous day. Until next time …

HAPPY READING!!!