Yes, he need to calm down before I saw him as a creep.
He's having a hard time because he never made his feelings clear to her before, and now telling her out of the blue would probably be too much of a shock for her, since she probably knows better than anyone that the emperor can't just marry her without a real excuse if she and her family don't have enough of a high position (to keep all the "rivals" quiet)... If the emperor marries her without a pretext, he'd be at risk of losing the support of many of the people currently keeping him in power (because those people would be expecting him to marry someone from a family whose prestige and power could help him strengthen his position as king, rather than weakening it). Both the emperor and his supporters would have to know that him marrying a girl from a relatively "average" family (without enough social prestige and political influence) would weaken his power (unless he finds a way to counteract it), since the noble and powerful families who'd had ambitions of gaining access to the top of goverment (by becoming the omes to marry their daughter to him in a political alliance) would say he was being unfair and playing favorites, and maybe use that as an excuse to rebel against his rule, even.
Bro, does he feel anything in his heart for her or just feel the need to make her be his possession? Did we get a THUMP from his heart? lmao, I don't remember if it did happen but if he's holding her back just because he feels the need to, that's a no-no.