Aim of this study was to examine relationship between adaptive and maladaptive personality traits, emotional intelligence and emotional manipulation and also tendency to use manipulation tactics in context of romantic relations. Research was conducted on 303 participants, age 18 to 50, who were all currently romantically involved. All participants completed online form which consisted of following questionnaires: Big five Inventory (BFI, Benet-Martinez and John, 1998), Short dark triad scale (SD3, Jones and Paulhus, 2014), Emotional skills competence questionnaire (ESCQ-45, Takšić, 2002), Emotional manipulation scale (Austin et al. 2007; Opat Jozić and Ombla, 2019), Manipulation tactics scale (Buss, 1992; Opat Jozić and Ombla, 2019). Results indicate that there is positive, but low correlation between emotional intelligence and emotional manipulation. Furthermore, the results also suggest that there is positive, but low correlation between emotional manipulation and extraversion, neuroticism and also moderate but negative relationship with agreeableness. Correlations with remaining adaptive personality traits weren't found. Additionally, emotional manipulation correlates positively with all maladaptive personality traits. Emotional intelligence, agreeableness, and two personality traits of dark triad, machiavellianism and psychopathy are shown to be positive predictors of emotional manipulation, with dark triad contributing most in explanation of the variance of criteria. Finally, results also indicate that machiavellianism is a mediator and agreeableness suppressor of the association between emotional intelligence and emotional manipulation in context of romantic relationships. These results present additional contribution to research of “dark side” of emotional intelligence.