The options were limited . . . When Natalie Lundgren aided the victim of a rockslide in the French Alps, she didn't know that the man was a famed Russian skating coach - or that he was defecting. Natalie was further surprised when Mikhail Korolev appeared on her doorstep in Delaware a few weeks later to thank her for saving his life. The virile Russian also had another reason for locating Natalie. His friend Aleksei was being detained in a Soviet prison, and Mikhail had devised an ingenious plan to secure his comrade's release. An unsuspecting Natalie held the key to the scheme's success. But could Mikhail win Aleksei's freedom without betraying the woman he had grown to love?