Does lestat really love Louis

Yes!! Sure he does. It is literally revealed in the books in so many phrases. For one Lestat says "I fell fatally in love with him" and from time to time talks about Louis as his lover - but whether this is a romantic nature or not, is not been made official in the books, in the narrating. You can fall in love with anyone and anything in any nature and passion is just the strength and depth of it - it doesn't determin the nature. And the term "lover" has been used in very basic means in The Vampire Chronicles: In "Blood and Gold", Marius refers to Lestat as his lover, once. Yet they never had and don't have a romantic nor sexual relationship but are a mentor and student, father and son and close friends. And according to Anne Rice when it comes to Lestat and Marius; "They could never be called lovers." Yet she wrote Marius refer to Lestat as such - so it must be for love as love. You love a person and they love you back - you are basically lovers.

Which, the open-for-interpretion type of description of Lestat and Louis, is why many imagine them as romantic lovers whereas many imagine them as just close friends. It is likely, that in Anne Rice's image they're both. However Anne Rice herself has chosen to only use the Words "Lestat and Louis have a love-hate relationship." For other examples of Lestat's love for Louis; in The Tale of the Body Thief he says "I would never deny you anything", when he talks to Louis in his thoughts, and to the reader he tells "...whether he knew about my love for him and that wretched, angry chíld." The last mentioned of course refering to Claudia.

So yes, Lestat certainly really loves Louis, but what nature of love it is, is left up to the reader.