He loved Lois. No doubts there. He wanted to tell her. But he couldn’t. It was too soon. He needed more time. They’d only been officially dating for a week.
I think he's not giving her enough credit here. But it's very in-character for Clark at this time. He's very concerned about being an alien, and "coming out" to Lois. He's making it a bigger deal than she would, probably. So of course it's going to lead him into a bad decision which will in turn lead us into a good story!
