Love is a biased emotion, its opposite being hate. In Buddhism the ultimate expression is compassion, which is different from love because its not partial or biased. It also arises spontaneously and naturally, uncontrived, when we abide in our Buddha nature.
Furthermore there is no ultimate self in Buddhism. Although its recognized that we have a self that has arisen through causes and conditions (through dependent origination), its viewed that this self is a impermanent entity composed of a combination of the elements mixed with ones karmic accumulations. The Buddha nature is primordial emptiness, our own primordial nature. Although empty of existence (meaning it has not arisen as an object to be seen, held, smelled, and so forth) it is in fact a thing with qualities, its qualities are listed variously, but most generally speaking its open, spontaneous, indestructible, non dual, indivisible.
Its when we abide in our Buddha nature that spontaneous compassion for all beings arises, but it does so without any imputation of oneself or other as being real entities. In fact, its the very knowledge that there is no self that gives rise to compassion in the first place, because its seen very clearly that peoples belief in themselves and objects as absolutely real and permanent is what gives rise to suffering (through attachment to and aversion from objects/self).
Its a complicated subject and not easily understood intellectually. Better to meditate and try to directly experience the emptiness nature of phenomena for oneself.