Best friends

My best friend and I have been friends for 14 years now we recently got super close when we started college he has always showed he has care and does so many stuff for me like around February he would ask me if I would have sex with him I always said no. Also everyone would ask us if we were together and he would always stay quiet and just smile and not say anything until I said no my friends always said they were clues of him telling me he likes me. I was always so scared to end break our friendship if something ever did happen. I recently told him him I started to have feelings for him and he told me “you such a beautiful women inside and out any man would be lucky to have you but I just not ready. Whatever we do it doesn’t mean anything to me I just want us to be friends with benefits” I accepted to that but after that I feel like our friendship is going down hill and my feelings keep growing. He has changed a little after we had sex and I don’t know if I should stop this or continue to be friends with benefits.