First Blush by Reina Torres

This coming February, you’re officially invited to attend a month-long celebration of love! Twenty-eight of your favorite short, steamy romance authors have teamed up to bring you stories that will make you swoon, laugh and set your e-readers on fire! Whether they’ve stumbled into love, fallen for their worst enemy, corralled their bestie or are fighting to rekindle a lost love… Tag along and find out what happens “After I Do”!

First Blush
Set in the Halcyon days when American Troops have returned from Europe at the end of WWII, Santo Marini marries his blushing bride. Vera Donato came to America to escape the devastation spreading through Italy and then waited several years for him to return home to New York. Surrounded by his family, they celebrate the joining of their lives in matrimony. Everything is a whirl of color and joy until they find themselves alone.
Santo wants to be a generous lover to his innocent bride, but the long wait and the years apart make him wonder if he’ll be able to school his emotions and the aching need for his beautiful wife. Vera worries that her inexperience will turn him away. She has had ample time to realize that her lack of knowledge compared to American-born women. who have more confidence and liberty. may disappoint her husband.
It doesn’t take long for Santo and Vera to realize that all they need to offer each other is their love and passion. Together, they discover that the barriers between them can’t hold a candle to the bright light of their future, After “I Do.”