“i love you” during adult activities

hey there besties, i’m gonna give context in the next paragraph and then the situation in the next and then my plea in the next just so y’all know the layout.

i’ve been dating my bf for 10 months now. me(f21) bf(m21) he’s a very closed off guy who barely tells me what’s going on deep in his mind and i am a very open book who will go on and on about every thought that comes to my brain. (not a bad thing though, he likes to listen and i like to talk lol). in february he had brought up the discussion of the phrase “i love you” and the idea of love. he is very iffy about it and says that he doesn’t think he’s ever been in it and has never been comfortable saying it. (he says it to his family and has told me that he doesn’t really think of that as love and when he has said it to non family members, he says he said it more for them, than for himself) i am a very lovey person. i love telling people i love them and i will tell anyone on the street if they needed to hear it. i think more people need to hear it and should not be afraid of it but i know i am a very rare breed when it comes to that kind of thinking. that being said and known, i have resisted the urge to tell him until i felt the time was right. early on, i wanted to tell him but i’ve been restraining myself to not scare him away.
a couple weeks ago we had a long car conversation with lots of sobbing and the most emotional vulnerability i have gotten from him in the past 10 months and he ended up telling me about how he had been feeling a bit sewersidal with all the things that he had going on with him. of course i reassured him i was going to support him however he needed me to but i also told him i loved him because it just felt right and i wanted him to know. (especially with all the dark things in his brain at the moment, it just felt like he needed it) afterwards he asked me if i truly meant it and that was it. he hasn’t said it back which doesn’t bother me since i know he’s uncomfortable with it and i’m a patient person but yeah, has not said it back. we’ve talked about it passively but i haven’t said it in full since. (example: he’ll say something dumb, i will respond “alright babe 😐” and then he’ll say something like “oh yeah that’s your type, you’re in love with my type” or just something dumb like that and then we laugh it off. basically no awkwardness or hard feelings)

a couple nights ago we were doing adult things (you know what i mean) and just to give more context, this session was stemmed from emotion and passion versus pure teenager h0rniness. we had a good couple of days and it was just pure and comfortable connection with each other. in the middle of it, he said the phrase “tell me you love me” and of course i told it to him in full phrasing and then we went on with the rest of the session. afterwards i couldn’t stop thinking about it and i don’t know the word to describe what i’m feeling right now other than just sad and confused. he’s never asked me to say it straight forwardly like that and of course i have no problem with telling him that i love him, (trust me, i would tell him over and over every second if i could so absolutely no problem with it) but the fact that in THIS setting was the first time he’s asked me to say it to him kind of irked me. once again, he hasn’t said it back to me (which i have no problem with) and this was the first time he has ever asked me to repeat it/directly ask me to say it in full to him.

i can’t tell if i’m being overly dramatic about feeling conflicted about this situation or if i actually do have a problem with him asking me to say it when he hasn’t said it back? i have no idea what to feel, maybe it’s because it was also in a setting where our private parts were out and he needed a boost or whatever. i don’t know. am i insane or is feeling conflicted abt this valid?