The Goode Governor (Goode Girl, #1)

by J.J. Arias

“So right up to the line of boss bitch with just enough Mary Poppins to keep me palatable.”

As women with aspirations, you will meet a world that wants to knock you back to your place. You will face situations where you will be treated unfairly. In those moments, when your mettle is tested, I advise you to stand tall and keep going. Focus on your goal and do not let anything shake your resolve. If you want something badly enough, be willing to sacrifice anything for it. Be fierce. Be fearless. Be unwavering in your determination. Goode Girls, I tell you this: Get up, dream big, and achieve bigger,”

Mila used the physical activity of walking to calm herself. Though she wished she could run, rather than be trapped in the slow-moving herd bombarded by the director’s endless chatter.

With their hands still gripping each other, as if neither wanted to be the first to yield, they turned for their picture. Mila was the only one to put her hand on the woman’s back, and as if on reflex or because she didn’t want Mila to get one over on her, the Governor rested her palm between Mila’s shoulder blades. “Thank you for this opportunity, Governor,” Mila finally offered with a husky tone when her group began filing out of the room. “It is so nice to see you again.”

“Forget that,” she muttered, sheltering him from the f-bomb she most certainly wanted to drop. “We can’t turn back now,” she added more to herself than to him. “Fortune favors the ballsy.” “I don’t think that’s how that saying goes,” he protested, but it was too late.

“Ms. Dortch,” Governor Fernandez said as if regarding a favored team member. “So good of you to join us,” she added with all the sincerity of a hostage. “Since you feel so strongly about knocking down someone else’s contribution, why don’t you provide us with something you deem worthy of our consideration? Something that doesn’t trigger such irrepressible boredom in you.” There was no doubt the governor’s saccharine words were meant to embarrass, but they gave Mila a rush. With pale cheeks flushed pink, she stood to speak, even though no one else had. Nothing like a challenge.

“Great contributions, team. It looks like we’ve run over time.” Josephine sprang from her seat as she addressed the room. “We will send out a memo this afternoon announcing what event the gov—” “I hope to see you all in attendance at the carnival this weekend,” Governor Fernandez interrupted with a hand on Josephine’s padded shoulder.

When she emerged from the tank, hair slicked back and dripping with water, the crowd was losing its collective mind. The state police struggled to keep the excited group back as people tried to reach in for back slaps and high-fives. The governor’s eyes were glistening with self-satisfaction when she glanced at Mila, who’d hoisted herself back to her seat. Without giving it any thought, Mila met her gaze with a wink and lopsided red smile.

“That girl is absolutely infuriating,” George complained as she climbed into the back of the black SUV, throwing off her hat and untucking her stuffy blue polo with the state seal emblazoned on one side.

“She’s so damn brash and brazen,” George continued, grumbling as she blasted herself with air conditioning.

“And then calling me out like that. Who does she think she is?” George complained, barely aware of Josephine’s words. “It’s fine to have the photo op, but it’s like she wasn’t going to be satisfied until I dunked her in that meningitis Petri dish! What did she want? The news to get a whiff of it? How great is that going to look when they talk about it? Vindictive Governor Engages in Water Torture of Husband’s Stripping Mistress,” she said as if she were gesturing over a marquee. “The lady doth protest too much, me thinks,” Josephine murmured as she swallowed her smirk.

The truth pulled up a chair and ordered itself a double shot of honesty with a blunt chaser.

And with that, Mila was gone just as the burgeoning sun turned the sky a deliriously happy pink. George was dumbstruck for another moment until she turned to her machine and rowed the fastest ten thousand meters of her life.

George began with her usual opening remarks and did her best not to look at the blonde irritant. Occasionally, her eyes drifted to her of their accord. Her gaze was always fixed and intent as if completely engaged in the act of listening. She was maddeningly present.

Resting her head against the cool glass of the back passenger window, Mila’s mind drifted. In the near month since she’d been a fellow, the governor had hardly spared her a second glance. Today, however, she’d been practically staring. Mila recalled the dark eyes scanning her legs, resting on her thighs and continuously finding her face. More than once, she’d almost sworn she sensed heat on her skin from her warm, brown eyes. If the governor’s expression hadn’t been equal parts stoic and dour, she’d almost wonder if she were checking her out.

Dancing was definitely a workout, but it was enjoyable enough to be distracting. No one ever accused burpees of fun.

Is your wife here as Persephone?”

Ooh, nice burn!!

half hoping he didn’t pick up on her guess that living with him must be like being trapped in hell.

OH MY GOSH NICE BURN

George’s mouth went dry and her stomach heaved as she took in the woman’s gorgeous form inch by inch. The white dress was tasteful and covered her body, but somehow it also told George exactly what she looked like naked. The effect was devastating and left her immobilized like hypnotized prey.

Blue eyes never left hers. They bored into her and made a home in her soul. It was like they could see passed her facade. Beyond the feigned smile and forced pleasantries. She’d been found out. Cleopatra had laid her bare with a penetrating gaze and luscious dark lips. For the first time in years, George wondered what it would be like to kiss the column of a long neck. To feel the wet heat of a mouth on hers.

She had every intention of saying no thank you, I’ve always worked out alone and have never had a problem. But the words died in her throat as smooth muscular thighs came closer to her face. George, who’d made her entire career on words, forgot how to speak.

The sight of her hard, angular face breaking out into laughter sent George’s heart into her stomach. It was a lovely sound and an even more gorgeous sight. Something about it felt sacred, like a rarely blooming flower.

“I have a lot of experience getting hurt,” she said as she neared. George swallowed hard. She hated being stretched out and tied down. It was a power dynamic she couldn’t abide, but if she stood up too quickly, she’d pass out, and that was even less desirable.

Mila’s husky voice broke her fever dream. “Let me help you with that,” she said, pulling on the Velcro strap tethering her to the table by her ankles and waist. Before George’s brain could formulate words of protest, Mila dropped to her knees in front of her.

“So, I’m a bigger asset than you’re using,” she blurted, standing in front of the row machine with her hands on her hips.

She glanced at her down turned lips before meeting her eyes again. “Good thing I’m not your husband.” Mila’s words were lower and more guttural than she intended them. Governor Fernandez’s face flushed with color, but Mila didn’t wait for a reply.

“Mila made some good points about not having to re-invent the wheel. A lot of these studies have already been vetted extensively and have universal application as to physiology and driving impairment.” “Mila did, did she?” Josephine said, not bothering to hide her amusement or Cheshire Cat grin.

“And I don’t think it hurts that she has some beauty to go with those brains,” Josephine added with a wry grin. George tapped her leg with her outstretched foot. “Oh stop it,” she said with a chuckle. “We’re not going to be those stereotypes. Objectifying a very accomplished and intelligent woman just because she also happens to have a nice physique and conventionally attractive face.” “Looks like you’ve given that a fair bit of thought,”

“Let’s do some real work and stop thinking about a glorified intern.” “Who said I was the one thinking about her?” Josephine countered, unwilling to let it go as she tucked a salt-and-pepper micro braid behind her ear. George gave her a severe stink-eye before swinging open the door, politician’s smile firmly in place.

“I know, right,” she said, breaking George free from her trance. “Not what I was in the mood for either.” “And what are you in the mood for?” she asked in her husky tone, half hoping and half terrified that Mila would read the double meaning behind it. In the microseconds of silence, George’s heart galloped up her throat as if trying to make a mad dash out of her mouth. She’d overplayed her hand. Pushed too far. Fuck. “Breakfast?” Mila suggested as if never second-guessing her intentions. Disappointment left a bitter taste in George’s mouth, but she ignored it. She quirked an eyebrow. “You cook?” “I do lots of things,” she replied, this time with what George was certain was a wink.

With the willpower of a Jedi Knight, George suffocated the thoughts. She wasn’t doing anything wrong.

“But it takes a whole lotta guts to unpack all your sh—” She corrected herself. “Unpack your stuff, look at it under a microscope, and remove all the habits, misconceptions, people, and things that don’t serve you. It’s the hardest thing in the world to do that with unflinching objectivity. Especially with no one to really hold you accountable but yourself.”

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” Mila said as the governor entered the gym during Mila’s work out time. She set down the barbells and picked up the weighted medicine ball. “Did you miss me?” she joked unexpectedly.

“On top of all that, it gave me some superhuman core strength,” she joked. “Superhuman, huh?” The color in the governor’s tanned cheeks rose as she asked. Mila knew in her bones that she was flirting, or wanted to flirt. She slapped her tensed abdomen. “Yoga helped too,” she admitted.

She tried to tear her eyes from the woman’s soft skin and graceful movements, but all she could think about was her dancing. After Mila had left the gym, George sat there for a long time. So long, that the lights designed to stay on while activity was detected had shut off. In the dark, she’d remained in the same position. Stunned. Entranced. Painfully turned on in a way she didn’t know was possible.

Is that what I want? For her to kick down my door and take me in her arms like a bodice ripper? she wondered as Nathan chatted happily at her, blissfully unaware of her distracted mind. The image of Mila desiring her so strongly sent a shockwave of aching need through her ill-equipped nervous system.

She chuckled and rolled her eyes. With two grapes left, she was afraid to make the real wish in her heart. Fuck it. She closed her eyes, popped them both in her mouth, and wished.

George couldn’t speak and she couldn’t find the will to try. She had been on a hamster wheel running away from the exact feelings this moment was forcing her to experience. She was too tired to fight it anymore. The spiderweb had bested her despite her valiant struggle.

She wanted to taste her lips. To feel the warmth of her embrace. Not because it had been so long since she experienced it, but because in that moment, she allowed herself to be enamored with a smart, stubborn, determined woman who challenged her and irritated her and refused to let her indulge in the safety of her mask.

“Since when do you drink Old Fashions?” Josephine asked as she came up behind her. George finished mixing the bitters. “Since I discovered they’re delicious,” she replied, leaving out that Mila had made her one during one of their all-night work sessions.

“Then what’s stopping you?” Mila whispered inches from George’s lips. “I’m here and I want this. I want you.”

“I have no standing to tell you what to do with your life,” she decided on a factually accurate statement. Mila smirked. “But if you had a say?” “I don’t like it,” she blurted in a fit of radical honesty. “So jealousy it is, then.” Mila laughed as she moved seats to share the sofa with her.

“Are you sure you want to do this? There’s no going back once the rainbow is out of the bag.”

There’s no reason to kill yourself with this self-imposed pressure. You’ve worked so hard to get here.” George partially opened a single eye to look at her sideways. “You and I both know that self-imposed is the only thing that counts.”