Delilah’s Guilty Pleasure

TROUBLE IN THE ROMANOS PARADISE

DELILAH AMOUR (First Person POV)

I watched the whole thing unfold like I was sitting in the front row of the best show I'd ever seen. It was better than any reality TV drama.

Designer-clad Emilia Romano had just lunged at Brianna like a loose, mad woman.

This was entertainment. And I hoped Brianna would sue her for assault.

Jax moved faster than I'd ever seen him move. His arms wrapped around Emilia's waist from behind, literally lifting her off her feet as Brianna scrambled backward, tripping over a light stand and going down in a tangle of clothing racks and photography setups.

"Let me GO!" Emilia thrashed in his grip, still struggling to reach Brianna. "I want to RIP HER UGLY EXTENSIONS OUT!"

"Emilia, STOP!" Jax's voice was strained with effort as he held his writhing wife. "Jesus Christ, stop!"

I covered my mouth with my hands, only to press my lips together to keep from smiling too widely.

Not yet. I had to maintain the shocked expression everyone else was wearing. I saw Lionel, the studio’s creative designer, across the studio looking like he was about to pass out.

My plan had worked out just perfect.

"Security!" someone shouted. "Call security!"

"NO!" Jax barked, still wrestling with Emilia. "Everyone just stay calm!"

"Calm?!" Emilia managed to get one arm free and swung it wildly. "You want me to be CALM after I found that thong in your pocket?! Don’t you f*****g tell me to calm down!”

She was still clutching the red thong in her fist, waving it around acussingly.

That beautiful scrap of lace I'd time perfectly timed and carefully planted in his pocket of the trousers I knew he'd wear on the flight home, while he'd been in the shower on our last day in Hawaii.

I’d made sure it was wedged in deep enough that he wouldn't notice but shallow enough that his wife would find easily.

And oh, I love how she was reacting after she found it.

Jax finally managed to set Emilia down, but he kept his arms around her, creating a barrier between her and Brianna, who was being helped up by two assistants. The model's face was pale-white, and her perfect makeup was streaked with tears.

"Mr. Romano, tell her we didn't… we never… " Brianna's voice was shaking.

"Shut up!" Emilia screamed. "Just shut your lying mouth you w***e!"

"Emilia." Jax spun her around to face him, his hands gripping her shoulders. His face was a mixture of shock, confusion, and growing anger. "What the hell are you talking about? What is that?"

"THIS!" She shoved the thong in his face. "THIS is what I'm talking about! I found it in your pocket, Jax! In the pants you wore home from Hawaii!"

His eyes dropped to the red lace, and I saw his reaction: complete, and genuine confusion.

He had no idea how he’d slipped up and left such a huge trail.

"I don't… that's not… give it to me" He reached for it, but Emilia yanked it away.

"Get away from me!" Her voice cracked.

“Emilia, I promise…”

"Shut up Jax, you’re just trying to come up with a more believeable lie.”

"Baby, I don't know what that is or how it got there…”

"LIAR!" She screamed in his face. "You're a LIAR!"

The entire studio was dead silent now. Everyone had their phones out, the cameras were probably still rolling, and they were all watching the golden couple of Paris crumble in real-time. I could already see tomorrow's headlines:

Romano Marriage on the Rocks: Designer's Wife Attacks Model in Jealous Rage.

"Emilia, listen to me…" Jax's voice was firm, but I could hear the desperation creeping in. "I have never, never cheated on you. I don't know how that got in my pocket, but it wasn't because I put it there."

Oh, he lied so good.

"Then how?!" She was crying now, mascara running down her face. "How, Jax? How does another woman's underwear just magically appear in your pocket? Did it teleport there? Did the laundry fairy deliver it?"

"I don't know!" His hands moved from her shoulders to cup her face, forcing her to look at him. "But I swear to God, Emilia, I swear on everything we have, I did not cheat on you. Not in Hawaii. Not ever."

"You expect me to believe that?" Her voice was smaller now, breaking. "After this?”

"Yes! Because it's the truth!"

"The truth?" She laughed, a horrible, bitter sound. "The truth is my mother was right. She warned me. She said all men are dogs, that I should keep my eyes on you, but I didn't listen. I blindly defended you. I planned a whole evening for us…" Her voice cracked completely. "I was making your favorite meal. I had a masseuse coming. I was going to…”

"Emilia…”

"I was going to apologize to you!" She was shouting again, tears streaming profusely. "For not trusting you in Hawaii! For being paranoid! And all along you were… you were…”

She couldn't finish, and she broke down into sobs, her whole body shaking violently.

Jax tried to pull her into his arms. "Baby, please, let’s talk in private…”

"Don't touch me!" She shoved him hard enough that he stumbled back. "Don't you EVER touch me again!"

"Emilia, you're not thinking clearly…”

"I'm thinking PERFECTLY clearly!" She wiped her face, smearing her makeup even worse. "For the first time in our marriage, I'm seeing you clearly! A heartless, lying asshole.”

"You're just saying that because you’re mad" Jax's voice was rising now, the frustration was very clear in his tone. "You're seeing what your mother convinced you to see! Don’t you see Gena is trying to pull us apart?”

"Don't you bring my mother into this!"

"Why not? She's been in your ear since day one telling you I don’t love you, I’m a jerk who’s going to cheat, that I'm just like your father…”

"Maybe she was RIGHT!"

"She's NOT right! I'm nothing like your father! I love you!"

"THEN EXPLAIN THIS!" Emilia threw the thong at him with force. It hit his chest and fell to the floor between them, a little pool of red accusation, clear enough for everyone to see.

Jax stared down at it, his jaw was ticking in fury.

When he looked back up, his eyes were hard. "I’ve told you, I can't explain it, because I don't know where it came from. But I'm telling you, on my life, on our late baby's memory, and on everything that matters, Emilia I did not cheat on you."

At the mention of their dead baby, his wife froze.

That was a low blow, Jax knew, and that’s why he used it.

The sad sob-story about her stillborn.

Emilia's face crumpled. "Don't. Don't you dare use our baby to…”

"I'm using the one thing I know you'll believe!" He stepped toward her. "I know how hard it is to accept you’ve lost a baby. Our baby. You know I would never dishonor her memory with a lie, so believe me when I say, I did not cheat on you.”

For a moment, I thought he might actually pull it off.

Emilia's face showed conflict, pain, and the desperate need to believe him. But her emotions were at war with the evidence literally lying at their feet.

Then she looked around the studio and saw all the watching faces. The phones. The cameras. Saw Brianna still crying in the corner, being comforted by assistants. Saw the gossip already spreading in whispered conversations and sidelong glances.

Her face hardened with awareness.

"Get away from me Jax," she said quietly. “You’re nothing but a loser.”

"Emilia, come on. Please…”

"I said GET AWAY!" She was screaming again. "I can't even look at you! I can't… I can't breathe with you next to me, lying to my face.”

She turned toward the elevator, but Jax grabbed her arm. "Baby, we shouldn’t do this here. Not like this."

"I don’t want to be with you anymore. Let go of me!”

"No." His voice was firm. "You want to accuse me? You want to tear apart our marriage? Fine. But we're doing it in private. Not in front of my entire staff."

"I don't care about your staff or this stupid studio! I don't care about…”

"Well I do!" He was pulling her toward his private office now, practically dragging her. "I care about you making a fool of yourself! You’re being gullible enough to believe baseless lies over your own husband!"

"They're not lies! The evidence is…

"The evidence is nothing. It’s clearly someone playing foolish games with us!" He kicked his office door open. "Get in. Now."

"Don't you order me around!"

"I'm not ordering. I'm begging." His voice dropped low. "Please, Emilia. Please come into the office and let me explain. Let me figure how this thong ended up with me. Don't keep on acting like this out here."

For a second, I thought she might refuse. I was waiting for her to make an even bigger scene, or worse, slap him. That would have been so delicious to watch.

Jax would come crying to me. Lamenting about the public embarrassment on my thighs, while I listened. And I was more than ready to suck his d**k, and call him daddy, just to his console him.

This was just the beginning of what I had in store for her. She had no choice but to stay in her marriage, and share him with me if she didn’t want to loose him all to me.