How long should you be dating before he says "I love you?"

My boyfriend and I haven't been dating "forever" or anything but we will be 5 months by the 9th and he's my first real boyfriend so it feels like a while for me☺️ I've always had a problem with the words "I love you" when it comes to dating kind of relationships but he is the first guy to make me feel like this.. I've never felt so close to a guy before and I want to tell him I love him but I also know he had issues with saying those words with his last girlfriend.. they were only together for 2 months but I guess she used to tell him "I love you" all of the time and he wanted her to stop saying it because he didn't feel the same way. So it kind of makes me afraid to tell him how I feel though there's been many times recently where the words almost slip out. I just want him to say it first and I feel like he may feel the same but I don't want to scare him.