I love you someone and I don’t know if they love me back

I’m in a situation where I’m having this thing with somebody. We’re not in a relationship, we just have sex. It was something we both agreed on. After a bit we can tell something more was happening but we didn’t want to say anything but after a while I just stopped avoiding and just said it. I have feelings and I’m not afraid to say it but he’s said it a couple times as well but he doesn’t know how to stay consistent with it. It’s confusing because I feel he’s trying hard to fight what he feels off rather than just feel it and go with the flow of it. He takes one step forward and as soon as he does he takes a step back. With him you have to dig to see what he really feels deep inside because he buries it so deep because in his previous relationship he was hurt bad